


Where the Devil Don't Go

by NarcolepticUnicorn



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Gen, LA, Los Angeles, Lux - Freeform, Lux nightclub, Murder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-07-14 15:03:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7176695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NarcolepticUnicorn/pseuds/NarcolepticUnicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a fellow nightclub owner is viciously murdered, Lucifer Morningstar once again teams up with Detective Chloe Decker to solve it but things quickly become complicated as someone from Lucifer's past makes their presence known and more nightclub owners are murdered.</p><p>Post-Season 1 *spoilers*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this has been rattling around in my head since before the finale but it's taken me a _long_ time to get it down. I'm still not 100% sure where the end point of this story is going to be but it will be a long one, I shall warn you now. As this story takes place after the end of Season 1 I'm putting it out there that there _will_ be spoilers.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for taking a chance on my story, despite my incredibly bad summary, and I very much hope your enjoy it. I will be attempting to post new chapters each week, on a Saturday on Sunday all things permitting.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't Lucifer or its fantastic characters and all rights remain with their respective owners. I'm just borrowing them and playing with them a little bit, I promise not to break them. I just hope I can do these wonderful characters, and the actors who bring them to life, justice!

A heavy, thrumming beat reverberated through her chest as the doors of the Lux nightclub were opened for her. Her eyes roamed over the mass of people, ignoring the writhing bodies and the ogling of scantily clad dancers and performers, looking for one man in particular; Lux owner, Lucifer Morningstar. Detective Chloe Decker didn’t know when Lucifer had put her name on the list at the door but she was thankful of no longer needing to wave her badge at the security or wait beside the long line of desperate people waiting to get in.

Chloe’s meticulous scrutiny of the club didn’t locate its owner but she did spy Lucifer’s volatile bartender, operations manager and bodyguard, Mazikeen, behind the bar flirting with a patron. She made a beeline for the mysterious woman, intent on asking her where her boss was hiding himself. Chloe didn’t know what to make of Mazikeen. She had made it abundantly clear on more than one occasion that she did not approve of Lucifer working as a police consultant and resented Chloe’s very existence but at the same time she had been kind and gentle with Trixie when her daughter had made her way to the bar in search of Lucifer; ignoring the whiskey that had been poured for the eight year old, of course.

The withering glare that Mazikeen fixed Chloe with likely would have made anyone else shrink away but Chloe didn’t let it deter her. She’d worked with Mazikeen briefly when she’d been seeking Detective Malcolm Graham in an attempt to clear Lucifer’s name for the murder of preacher Jacob Williams and was no longer as wary of the woman as she’d been in the past; despite learning that Mazikeen had apparently nearly murdered her in her sleep. She needed to know where Lucifer was; that he was okay.

“He’s not here,” Maze sneered when the glare hadn’t prevented the detective from approaching the bar. The detective was dressed in her usual trousers and wore a simple striped, long sleeve shirt beneath a leather jacket; all of which made her stick out for the cop she was.

Chloe wasn’t deterred. “Where is he?”

A surreptitious smile spread across the bartenders face. “Last I saw of Lucifer, he was leading the Brittanys back to his apartment.”

Lucifer had mentioned the “Brittanys” that night Chloe had shown up unannounced at his door after Dan had broken up with her via text and she’d made a spectacle of herself undressing and hogging the bed.

Chloe knew what Maze was attempting to do; she either was hoping to make her jealous that Lucifer was up in his apartment with three other women or embarrass her so that she wouldn’t head up there and ruin Lucifer’s “fun”. Whichever was the case, she wasn’t going to let it stop her and fixed Maze with her own smile. “I’ll just see myself up.”

Without another word, Chloe turned on her heel and headed for the stairs that led to Lucifer’s private elevator. She could feel the bartender glaring daggers into the back of her head as she wound her way through the moving bodies but she knew better than to look back.

The sound of giggling greeted Chloe as the elevator doors quietly pinged open and she could barely contain the look of mild disgust that spread across her face. As she stepped across the threshold another softer, sweeter sound greeted her; Lucifer’s piano. The man himself was seated at the piano’s bench, his long fingers moving deftly across the keys, completely lost in his own world playing a bittersweet rendition of _Stairway to Heaven_.

Chloe watched Lucifer for a moment, forgetting why she’d been looking for him. She watched his back muscles move smoothly beneath his pressed white shirt and grey vest and had to shake her head to clear the thought that she should reach and touch him. Where in hell had that thought come from?

A scream of delight from the bedroom broke both of their reveries and the Stairway to Heaven came to a grinding halt with a misplayed note. Lucifer released what sounded like a frustrated groan and his shoulders visibly sagged.

“Ahem,” Chloe said quietly to announce her presence.

Lucifer started and turned to face her. The easy grin he perpetually wore whenever they were together slid onto his face replacing the forlorn looking one that had been there moments before. “Ah, Detective,” he said smoothly. “Come for another midnight rendezvous, have we?”

Chloe had to keep her grimace in check. Was he ever going to let her forget her drunken traipse over here? She decided that the possibility of that happening was unlikely, this was Lucifer Morningstar she was talking about, after all.

“I…” Chloe began but stopped herself. How was she supposed to explain to him that she’d gotten a call about a murdered nightclub owner and rather than going to the crime scene she’d come straight here to make sure that he was okay? That he had been her first thought?

The easy grin on Lucifer’s face changed to a look of concern and he carefully lifted himself from the piano bench, stretching to his full six foot three height. “Is anything the matter, Chloe?”

The use of her name surprised her; he so frequently called her “ _Detective_ ” that it shocked her whenever he actually used her first name. She could only recall two instances that he’d actually used it in the past, when she’d been shot by Jimmy Barnes and he’d used his own body to protect her from getting shot by the music producer any further and in the hospital afterwards. She still didn’t know how he’d survived bring shot by Jimmy…

“N-no, no, everything’s fine,” she waved him off casually. At least she hoped it looked casual. “We’ve got a case and I thought you’d want in on it. A nightclub owner was murdered.”

The look of concern lingered on the man’s face but he didn’t press her about what she’d initially started to say. Grabbing his suit jacket from where it had been draped on the bar, Lucifer slid into it and then took his usual spot at Chloe’s side. “A fellow nightclub owner murdered, what could be more fascinating?"

Chloe wasn’t sure what was “fascinating” about a vivisection but she knew better than to ask. The crime scene they would be attending was at least not going to be “boring” by all accounts she’d received on the phone before she’d come looking for Lucifer.

“What about…?” she gestured vaguely at the bedroom where groans of pleasure still erupted from the Brittanys.

Lucifer seemed to have forgotten that they were there. “They’ll likely not notice I’m gone.”

Chloe noted a hint of disgruntlement in his voice.

“But they likely won’t enjoy themselves anywhere near as much without me.”

Ah, there was the Lucifer she was used to.

“Shall we?” Lucifer gestured back toward the elevator.

With a shrug Chloe allowed herself to be escorted from Lucifer’s apartment, one final squeal of delight from one of the Brittanys seeing them off as the doors slid shut.

*******

Chloe was watching Lucifer from the corner of her eye as she drove. He’d been unnaturally quiet since the elevator and he hadn’t so much as acknowledged Maze’s inquisitive look when they’d walked past her at the bar heading for the door. Chloe didn’t know the events that had led to the pair’s discordance but didn’t want to press the issue; Lucifer was a grown man and could deal with his own problems with his staff.

“If you have something to ask, please do so, Detective,” Lucifer sighed, breaking the silence. “Lest you wish to send us careening into that tree.”

Quickly swerving the car, Chloe only just managed to correct their path, bringing them back to following the curve the road had suddenly started to take and away from the small pine on the side of the road. When had she completely turned to stare at him?

She wasn’t going to answer but another peek out the corner of her eye made Chloe realise that Lucifer was looking at her expectantly. “I’m just wondering why you’re here, with me, driving out to a crime scene on a cold, wet night to check out a dead body instead of…” she trailed off, she didn’t need to finish the sentence for Lucifer to understand her query.

“Instead of fornicating with the Brittanys?”

Chloe grimaced at the image that popped into her head and a devilish grin spread across Lucifer’s face at her obvious discomfort.

“It’s just sex, Detective.”

“You know what I’m asking, Lucifer,” Chloe countered.

Lucifer became silent. He’d had this conversation not that long ago with Doctor Linda and she’d informed him that he was lonely and, while he’d discounted it at the time, he’d recently come to realise how right the therapist was. No matter how many times he fulfilled his carnal desires and with whom, that void was never filled unless he was with Chloe Decker. Even the temptation of the Brittanys warm bodies hadn’t been enough.

“I never forgo a good murder, Detective,” he finally replied.

The look Chloe gave him told him that she hadn’t believed what he’d said. He wasn’t sure he believed it either. Thankfully, the awkward conversation had met its end as they pulled up carefully at the Avalon Hollywood nightclub, the location of their latest murder case.

Flashing police lights reflected off the damp road and lit up the faces of the evicted club patrons, onlookers, paparazzi and police alike. Unfolding himself from Detective Decker’s car, Lucifer gazed up at the historic building. He’d attended a number of events at the venue in the five years he had been in Los Angeles and had even become quite infamous at the club himself but never would he have expected to attend the place as a police consultant to the murder of a man he’d known.

“Let’s go,” Chloe said quietly, respectful as ever of what had happened here.

Ducking the police cordon, Lucifer followed Chloe through the ornate front doors. Evidence of the chaos that had ensued inside the club was evident everywhere; half-finished drinks were left alone at the bar, more glasses and their contents were scattered broken on the floor, jackets had been abandoned in the booths and tables, there were even a small number of forgotten high heels. Brightly lit, the scene was at ends with the atmosphere Lucifer was usually accustomed to at the nightclub.

The police forensic team was carefully combing over the club looking for any potential evidence but all of the excitement was coming from a hallway that lead off the main room. Lucifer followed closely behind Chloe as she weaved her way through grave faced police officers and even more members of the forensic team gathering evidence. The gruesome scene that met them at the club owner’s office stopped them in their tracks.

Barely an inch of flooring remained that wasn’t covered in blood, even the walls featured an ample spray of blood. Of the victim there was very little that was recognisable. Whomever it was that had killed him made sure that it was painful before he’d finally kicked the bucket. The victim, or what remained of him, was strapped to his office chair. Pieces of skin had been flayed from his arms and legs, deep stab wounds peppered his body but it was more than likely the deep gash across his throat was probably did him in in the end.

Detective Douche appeared at Chloe’s left elbow and greeted her with a small nod and smile. Things had been strained between them since he’d owned up to removing the gun from evidence that would be used by Malcolm to frame Lucifer for Reverend Williams’ murder. He’d been spared jail but this was his first case back after a lengthy suspension and there was still tension between the pair. Lucifer’s presence Dan ignored completely. “Victims name is Jared Wright,” Dan said quietly as he inspected his notes. “He’s been the owner and manager of the place since he bought it in 2000.”

Chloe just nodded silently as she made her own notes.

“Kyle Butte, Wright’s bar manager,” Dan nodded toward a young, skinny guy that was covered head to toe in blood. “He found Wright’s body when he came in to ask about a wine order and fell over in all the blood trying to check for a pulse on the vic and then threw up. He says that Wright was alone the entire time and didn’t see anyone come or go.”

“Thanks, Dan,” Chloe said cordially as she moved toward Kyle Butte, who was busy chewing his thumb and staring intently at what remained of his boss.

It took Lucifer snapping his fingers in front of the young bar manager’s face to draw his attention away from the sight. Beneath the blood and spatters of vomit, Kyle Butte was about as imposing as a kitten; his short brown hair was perfectly coiffed into the latest style, the shirt he wore was half a size too big for him and he barely looked old enough to be allowed into the nightclub let alone managing the bar.

“Kyle Butte? I’m Detective Chloe Decker and this is my consultant Lucifer Morningstar. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?” Chloe’s voice was empathetic to the witness but still commanded respect. It was a testament to just how good a cop she really was.

With a sniff and a nod of affirmation from the blood soaked Kyle, Chloe continued. “Can you tell me about how you found Mr Wright?”

“Um, yeah, like I told the other detective, I was working the bar and I had someone asking about a Rothschild Pauillac-"

“Ooh, someone’s got good taste, that’s an exquisite wine,” Lucifer chimed in but was silenced with a look from Chloe.

“I-I know Jared was getting in a few bottles for tonight especially but they weren’t behind the bar so I came back here t-to find him to ask where they were but there was so much blood… it was everywhere… and he wasn’t m-moving. I thought I could help him, but I t-tripped over… it was so slippery… there was nothing I could do…”

“It’s okay, Kyle,” Chloe said soothingly. “Did you see anyone come in or leave?”

The bar tender shook his head vehemently. “No. Jared had only been in here about half an hour before I found him… like this. He was alone.”

Lucifer and Chloe exchanged a look. The harm inflicted on Jared Wright was extensive for apparently only taking place over thirty minutes.

“Could someone have been in here waiting for him? Gotten in or out another way, other than through the club?”

Another shake of Kyle’s head; he was quickly becoming more distressed. “No, there’s no way. No one could have been back here. Jared always leaves his door locked unless he’s in here and no one gets back here without talking to me at the bar first.”

Chloe hastily wrote the details into her notebook. “Did anyone have a problem with Jared? A reason to want him dead, maybe?”

“Everyone loved Jared, he is... was a great boss.”

“Kyle,” Lucifer said smoothly, drawing the bar manager’s attention with another snap of his fingers. “What do you stand to gain from Jared slipping off the mortal coil?”

Kyle Butte relaxed visibly, just as everyone did under Lucifer’s gaze. “N-nothing, Jared gave me the promotion to bar manager three months ago, I owe him a lot. But it pissed a lot of people off when I was given the job because I’ve only been working here nine months. I’ll probably lose my job with Jared not here anymore. Oh God, I’m going to lose my job.”

Lucifer rolled his eyes skyward at the mention of God. “He’s not going to be able to help you.”

“Who was it that was pissed off with you getting the bar manager job, Kyle?” Chloe asked, picking up the line of questioning.

Kyle hugged himself. “Um, Astrid Cooper, sh-she’s been working here for, like, um, two years and she was really pissed when Jared promoted me over her.”

Chloe scratched the name into her notebook and asked if Astrid had been working that night but only got another shake of the head from Kyle. “Do you know of anyone else that might have been angry with Jared, for any reason?” she continued.

Kyle just shrugged. “No, everyone here really liked Jared. He expected a lot from us but he was fair, you know? It was a really good job.”

Chloe just nodded but Lucifer knew that she was planning on talking with everyone who’d ever worked at Avalon Hollywood under Jared Wright. “Thanks for your help, Kyle,” Chloe said as she handed over her card. “If you think of anything else, just give me a call.”

Kyle nodded and stared numbly at the card in between his fingers. Despite being the one to find Jared Wright’s body he’d likely already expended his usefulness to the case.

As a forensic tech moved over to Kyle to take his blood soaked clothes for processing, Kyle called out to Chloe. “There was someone here asking after Jared yesterday,” he said as if the information were an afterthought. “He was really pissed that Jared wasn’t here.”

“Who was looking for Jared, Kyle?”

“Uh,” Kyle faltered due to the level of urgency in Chloe’s voice. “He said his name was Preston, I’m not sure if that was a first or last name.”

Chloe felt Lucifer stiffen beside her. Her partner’s attention had moved from the witness before them and back to Wright’s body with renewed scrutiny.

“Thank you, Kyle, that’s very helpful.”

Grabbing Lucifer by the elbow, she escorted him from the office and out into a quiet section of the club. “Care to tell me why the name “ _Preston_ ” means something to you?”

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about, Detective.”

The look Lucifer was giving was none too convincing and she’d been working with him far too long now to not know when he wasn’t telling her everything. “I thought you said you never lied.”

Lucifer looked chagrined and sighed. “Okay, Detective, you got me. I may have had something to do with this.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is Chapter #2 of _Where the Devil Don't Go_!
> 
> I really want to thank everyone who left a comment or kudos for the first chapter, it means a lot and gives me lots of motivation to keep writing.
> 
> On another note, I've been able to (sort of) plan out the arc of the story and all up I _think_ it's going to be 13 chapters in length. This may change as I keep writing depending on where the story may take me and how well people are responding to it. I'm currently writing Chapter 5 but I'm going to keep to my weekly chapter posting as it gives me that little bit of a buffer to keep up with writing it and plenty of time to edit before posting.
> 
> Again, thanks for taking the time to read my story and I hope you enjoy Chapter 2!!

_Previously on Lucifer: “Where the Devil Don’t Go” – Chloe Decker sought out Lucifer Morningstar at his club, Lux, after receiving a call about a murdered club owner and fearing for her partner’s safety. The Devil himself was in his apartment playing his piano rather than partaking in salacious activities with the Brittanys and willingly drew himself away to join Chloe at the crime scene at the Avalon Hollywood night club. At the scene the partners discovered the eviscerated body of club owner Jared Wright, flayed alive before having his throat slit. After speaking with Wright’s young bar manager, Kyle Butte, Chloe learnt that a man known only as “Preston” had been asking after Wright only the day before his murder. More interestingly, Lucifer knows something of this “Preston” and revealed he may have had something to do with Jared Wright’s murder._

#### Chapter 2

_“I may have had something to do with this.”_

The words reverberated through Chloe’s head.

_“I may have had something to do with this.”_

“You need to explain right now, Lucifer,” she hissed, eyeing a forensic technician working nearby. When Chloe had found preacher Jacob Williams lying dead mere feet from where Lucifer was sitting alone drinking at his bar she’d had no choice but to place him under arrest. She’d taken no pleasure in the task and could still recall how the gun had felt like a lead weight and how her hands had shaken as she pointed it at him. Granted Lucifer had somehow mysteriously vanished from the scene before he’d been taken into custody after he’d threatened newbie police officer Andrew Baker into nearly shooting him and it had quickly become clear that he’d been framed by Malcolm but all the same, she didn’t want to go through that ever again.

Lucifer raised his hands in surrender, an image that was all too similar to how he’d looked when she had attempted to arrest him. Obviously the memory was still fresh in his mind as well. “You know I grant people favours, Detective,” he said carefully. “Jared came to me a few weeks ago looking to expand his enterprises and I put him in touch with _Michael_ Preston, a businessman of less than reputable character, I must admit, but a man who would be able to assist Jared by any means necessary.”

“How did Wright want to expand his business? What kind of business is this Michael Preston in? What do _you_ get out of this favour?” Chloe knew she wasn’t exactly following protocol bombarding Lucifer with these questions but she wanted to be able to rule him out as a suspect. The fact that he had introduced Jared Wright to the man that might have killed him didn’t exactly look good.

Lucifer sighed. “Jared was looking to provide new amenities to his patrons to help boost his business and cash flow. Drugs and hookers, Detective,” he clarified when Chloe arched an eyebrow at him. “Not a choice I personally would make but who am I to judge. So I introduced him to Preston, who has connections and the means to get anyone with enough money whatever it is they desire. And as for what I got out of my little favour with Jared, Detective, had yet to be determined and it seems I’ve missed my chance to collect.”

Being perfectly honest with herself, Chloe wasn’t surprised that Lucifer would know someone like Michael Preston; he probably had connections with half of Los Angeles’ underworld. She finished making her notes and slipped the pad back into her pocket. “We’re going to have to talk to this Preston guy,” she said. “Would you happen to know where we could find him?”

Lucifer gave her a surreptitious smile.

“Of course you do,” she sighed.

*******

The bar Lucifer had directed her to was severely run down and probably wouldn’t be meeting any health code regulations any time soon. Several of the windows were broken and repaired using only cardboard and sticky tape and even the entrance looked as if someone had recently been thrown through the door as it was cracked and hung loosely off its hinge at an odd angle. An ode de urine also seemed to emanate from the venue that not even the closed windows on the car could keep out. It was exactly the kind of place Chloe expected to find someone of Michael Preston’s repute.

The pair sat outside the _Horses Head_ bar in Chloe’s police issue car. On the ride over Lucifer had enlightened her as to how he’d come to know someone as unsavoury as Michael Preston. As an emerging drug dealer several years ago, Preston had frequented Lux trying to sell his dodgy product to Lucifer’s patrons. Lucifer had quickly nipped Preston’s entrepreneurial desires in the bud after a young girl had nearly died of an overdose in Lux’s bathroom but he had seen value in Preston’s ability to get someone anything and everything they wanted. Lucifer was elusive as to what types of things Michael Preston had been able to get for him in the past but Chloe had a sneaking suspicion that very few, if any of them, were strictly legal but she didn’t press the issue. There were just some things she was better off not knowing when it came to Lucifer Morningstar.

They didn’t have to wait long before the man Lucifer identified as Michael Preston strolled up to the bar’s entrance. A man in his mid-thirties, Michael Preston wasn’t exactly the image of a man who could get someone whatever their heart desired. Chloe had been expecting someone neat and sharply dressed, business-like, but Preston’s brown hair was an unkempt shaggy mess down past his ears, the jeans he wore were torn across both knees, and not in a fashionable way, and beneath his jacket his t-shirt bore a large, dark stain.

“Let’s go,” Chloe said quietly as they exited her car.

If the outside of the _Horses Head_ was any indication of what the interior would look like then Chloe was incredibly surprised. Inside, whilst dimly lit, was immaculately kept with booths lining the wall opposite the bar and a smattering of tables and chairs between them with nary a piece of dirt on the floor. The clientele themselves were much like how the bar presented itself; a mixture of business and dereliction. A few of them eyed the Amani clad Lucifer and his overt cop partner and decided it better to down their drinks in a gulp and slip out the back than stick around but Chloe wasn’t interested in them or whatever business they’d been conducting here.

“Let me take the lead,” Chloe muttered to Lucifer as they spied Michael Preston sitting alone across the bar, drink already in hand.

“Hello, Mickey,” Lucifer said with false joviality as he grabbed Preston by the collar of his jacket and threw him against a nearby wall.

“I thought I said I would take the lead,” Chloe groused. Sometimes she didn’t know why she bothered giving Lucifer instructions, he only ended up doing whatever it was he wanted in the end anyway. “Take it easy, Lucifer.”

“L-Lucifer! How are you, buddy?” Michael Preston spluttered as Lucifer’s tall frame loomed over him. “What can I do for you?”

“We’re here about Jared Wright,” Lucifer enlightened him.

Preston paled considerably at the mention of the name. “W-what about him?”

“He’s dead, Mickey, someone created quite the gruesome tableau with his body.”

“I-I had nothing to do with it. He was alive when I last saw him, I-I swear!”

It was Chloe’s turn to take over before Lucifer completely scared her suspect; she showed him her badge but that only seemed to make Preston pale all the more, if it was even possible. “When did you last see Jared, Mr Preston?”

The dishevelled man gulped visibly. “Earlier today. Around noon, I think? He was still alive and well when I left him at the Avalon.”

“And what did you see him about?” she pressed

“He owed me money for my services.” Preston was starting to relax now that it wasn’t Lucifer doing the questioning. “Jared was behind in his payments and so I politely told him that my services would cease until he started paying me again.”

“ _Services_ being drugs and hookers, you mean,” Lucifer supplied.

Preston shrunk again under the tall man’s gaze. “Yeah, yeah, I’m talking about the drugs and hookers he wanted. I can’t supply it if I’m not being paid. You know how my business works, man, you helped me set it up.”

“Why did Jared want drugs and hookers for his club?” Chloe asked.

Michael Preston shrugged. “I don’t ask questions, I’m only the supplier.”

Chloe and Lucifer shared a glance; it was clear to the both of them that Michael Preston knew more than he was letting on. Lucifer again grabbed Preston by the collar of his jacket and slammed him against the wall. The plaster behind him cracked noisily at the force Lucifer used.

“Hey, hey!” Preston protested. “Isn’t this assault?!”

Chloe smiled sweetly, “I don’t know, it’s been a while since I read the handbook.”

Lucifer used his strength to slightly lift Michael Preston off the ground by his collar. A sadistic smile spreading across his face.

“Okay, okay, okay,” Preston rasped. Lucifer none to gently dropped him back to the ground. “The Avalon was bleeding dry and Jared was wanting to up the cash flow a little bit and he thought drugs and hookers would give him the lift he was looking for but, as I said, I can’t supply if I don’t get paid. I certainly didn’t kill him, I just wanted my money.”

“If you didn’t have anything to do with Jared’s death,” Lucifer growled. “What’s this then?” He viciously gabbed Michael Preston in the large, dark stain on his t-shirt, eliciting a squeal of pain from the man. 

Surprised by Preston’s cry of pain, Lucifer lifted his grimy shirt and uncovered a freshly bleeding stab wound. It wasn’t deep, and certainly not life threatening, but to Chloe it looked as if it could use a few stitches.

“What happened there?” she asked.

Preston seemed reluctant to answer but one glance at Lucifer seemed to change his mind. “Someone else looking for Jared, funnily enough. And no, before you ask, I didn’t get a name.”

“What did they want?” Chloe probed.

“Money, what else? He saw me leaving the Avalon and must have thought I was Jared’s money guy or something, he told me that Jared was going to pay. When I tried to explain that I was owed money by Jared too, he just got really angry and he stabbed me and again said that Jared was going to pay. In pounds of flesh, if needs be.”

That piece of information took both Lucifer and Chloe aback. Kyle Butte, Jared Wright’s bar manager, hadn’t mentioned anything about the Avalon’s money problems or anyone else asking after his boss.

“Did you get a look at him?” Chloe asked, taking out her notebook.

Preston scratched his chin. “He hid his face but be was dishevelled looking, kinda had that homeless vibe about him. Kinda smelt bad too, a mix of cheap alcohol and unwashed.”

“This must have been the guy who killed Jared,” Lucifer mused aloud, earning himself an elbow in the ribs from Chloe. How many times had she told him not to speculate in front of witnesses and suspects? He never learned. “I’m just saying someone that doesn’t take pride in their appearance probably has nefarious intentions.”

Chloe just rolled her eyes; an action she was finding herself do all the more the longer she spent in the company of Lucifer Morningstar.

“Yeah, yeah, so why don’t you go and ruin his night and let me get back to my drink?”

“Thank you, Mickey, you’ve been ever so helpful,” sarcasm dripped from Lucifer’s voice as he clapped the other man on the shoulder. “You may want to get that looked at, looks painful.”

Preston just sneered at him before dropping himself back into his seat. 

As they left the bar, Chloe couldn’t help feeling stuck. The one lead they’d had, whilst informative, had only created more questions that didn’t have answers and they were no closer to figuring out who had killed Jared Wright. She sighed. “Maybe we should head back to the Avalon and ask Kyle Butte some more questions. Maybe he can shed some light on the Avalon’s money problems.”

“No, that’s boring,” Lucifer complained, causing Chloe to roll her eyes at her partner’s favourite complaint about any case they worked together. “Besides, I doubt Jared was the type to share his club’s financial problems with someone like Kyle Butte.”

Chloe sighed again and pinched the bridge of her nose. She knew Lucifer was right, it would be a waste of time driving all the way back to the Avalon just to talk to Kyle Butte when it was already apparent that the young bar manager had already told them everything he knew, but she wasn’t about to let him know that. He was unbearable enough as it was whenever she let it slip that she thought he was right. Lucifer didn’t need another ego boost.

“We should talk to the Avalon’s accountant,” Chloe suggested. “Surely he’ll know something about the club’s financial problems.”

Lucifer waved her off. “No, I know exactly who we should go and talk to next.”

“And who’s that?” Chloe asked, already apprehensive because of the eagre look in her partner’s eye and his ever growing smile.

“Why, Jared Wright’s _actual_ money guy, of course!”

*******

Back in the car, Chloe had decided that they were going to call it a night. She’d called and gotten the name of Jared Wright’s personal accountant from Dan, a Mr Walter Moore CPA, but, considering the time, their questions for him could wait until morning. It was well past 2AM and she was bloody tired after the long day she’d had.

She’d spent most of the day filing paperwork, still cleaning up the mess that Malcolm Graham had left behind. After her mandated leave from work, after Malcolm had kidnapped Trixie and she’d put four bullets in his chest, Chloe had been surprised at just how deep Malcolm’s corruption had run. Several detectives and officers had been laid off and it was thanks to Chloe’s investigation that Dan had been let off with only a suspension rather than losing his job as well.

Chloe still couldn’t explain how Lucifer had survived, though, and it gnawed at her relentlessly. She had seen Malcolm shoot him at point blank range. She’d heard him take his shuddering last breath. Hell, he’d even admitted that Malcolm had killed him but that he “got better”; how do you “get better” after dying?! No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t explain how he had survived being shot, his blood soaked shirt was evidence enough, but, even then, Lucifer had been standing strong at the end of the ordeal. There were still so many things Chloe Decker did not understand about her partner and she’d decided that she was maybe better off not knowing.

Lucifer was silent himself but seemed content with it, rather than feeling the need to fill it like he usually did. From the look on his face, Chloe could see that he was lost in thought. Unbeknownst to her, he had been working tirelessly with Amenadiel trying to locate their mother but thus far their efforts had been for naught. Mum wasn’t on the continental US as far as they could tell but there were too many factors to take into consideration before they expanded their search worldwide. Lucifer had Chloe and Trixie to think about. He shuddered to think what would happen to them if his mother discovered that he, the Devil, had gone soft over some mortal woman. No, his first priority was keeping them safe.

They were nearing Lux when the screech of tires from a pickup truck coming in the other direction broke them both from their reveries. Chloe lifted her hand, suddenly blinded by the oncoming pickup’s headlights. “What the-”

She didn’t have time to swerve. She barely had time to brake. The pickup truck slammed head on into Chloe’s car. She heard a heavy grunt from Lucifer as he was propelled out of his seat from the force of the two vehicles colliding. Chloe couldn’t count the number of times that she’d told him to put on his seatbelt and he’d always just waved her off or made some smart arsed remark. Now there was nothing she could do for Lucifer as his head crashed against the windshield, shattering it and sending glass flying everywhere.

Chloe thought she screamed Lucifer’s name as he was thrown from the car but she couldn’t be sure as her own breath left her in a rush as her head collided with the steering wheel despite the airbag already being deployed.

Chloe tried to control the spin she was in, trying to avoid where Lucifer lay unmoving in the road, but she couldn’t tell which way she was going anymore, she could barely see the road for the blood running into her eyes from the gash on her forehead. She was still being shunted up the road by the large pickup, its motor screaming and deafening Chloe through the broken windshield.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, her car finally came to a stop as it crashed against a light pole dozens of feet up the road from the initial impact. The force of the impact sent Chloe’s head crashing into her side window and after that Chloe Decker saw nothing but darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK! After nearly losing the entire work thanks to my cat, here is Chapter 3 of _Where the Devil Don't Go_!
> 
> I am so very sorry (OK, not entirely) for leaving the last chapter on a cliff hanger. I'll warn you now that it's not going to be the only one; the way I'm going there seems to be one every other chapter.
> 
> A REALLY big thank you to those who left comments or kudos on Chapter 2, it means a lot to me. I'm really glad that you're enjoying the story.
> 
> As you may or may not have noticed, I'm posting the new chapter two days ahead of my usual posting schedule and this is because I was able to dedicate a lot of time this week to writing and I finished writing Chapter 5 earlier than I'd predicted. I'm still going to keep to my weekly posting just so that I have a nice buffer in case I fall behind in my writing, I'd hate to have to delay posting a chapter because I haven't had time to write it, but if I finish earlier then I will naturally post sooner. I've also updated the number of chapters this story will be from 13 to 14. While I was writing Chapter 5 I was finding that it was just getting too long and so I've found a natural place in which to split it and so there's an extra chapter for everyone to hopefully enjoy!
> 
> Anywho, enough of my rambling. Once again, thank you for taking the time to read my story and I hope you enjoy Chapter 3 of _Where the Devil Don't Go_.

_Previously on Lucifer: “Where the Devil Don’t Go” – Investigating the brutal murder of Jared Wright, the owner of the Avalon Hollywood nightclub, Chloe Decker and Lucifer Morningstar found themselves at a seedy bar looking for Michael Preston, an underworld businessman, after he’d been heard asking after Wright only a day before his death. Whilst there they learnt that a mysterious man had also been looking for Jared Wright, desperate for money that was apparently owed him. Late as it was, Chloe had decided to call it a night and return her partner to his club but the pair didn’t make it back to Lux, instead finding themselves in a head on collision with a pickup truck._

#### Chapter 3

The hiss of broken radiators was the only sound that broke the silence. At near three in the morning there were no witnesses to the collision between the pickup truck and the unmarked cruiser; no one to ogle at the scene, to take pictures or videos with their smartphones and no one to render assistance to the unconscious police detective still in her car or her civilian consultant partner splayed out in the middle of the road, broken and bruised from where he had been thrown from the vehicle.

No one to ask why the driver of the pickup truck had steered directly into the path of the oncoming police car.

Glass snapped loudly beneath the pickup driver’s boots as he jumped from the crumpled wreck and inspected the scene before him. The pickup had struck the front quarter panel on the left side of the detective’s car, completely caving in the bonnet. What remained of the pickup, once its engine had finally given out and the two vehicles had come to a rest against the light post, had twisted around the driver’s side door making it hang it off its hinges in a twisted mess. Steam rose from the busted radiators and a stink of oil and gas permeated the air. All it would take was a single spark to ignite the fumes and the detective would burn like she were in the fires of Hell itself. How deliciously ironic that would be, for the Devil’s little pet mortal to go up in flames.

The pickup driver payed no attention to the detective where she slumped unconscious and bleeding against the steering wheel in her car, there were more pressing things than a little mortal to be concerned with. Rather, the driver focused his attention on Lucifer Morningstar’s prone form lying alone in the middle of the street.

The Devil himself lay unconscious and bleeding heavily from a myriad of cuts that marred his handsome face. If he had been a mere mortal, the large piece of glass protruding from his upper abdomen would have surely killed him but even with his recent proneness to exsanguinate, he was still the Devil. It was curious. Whenever he was in the presence of the little detective Lucifer was all too human and completely vulnerable.

The pickup driver fisted the front of Lucifer’s bloodied white shirt and pulled the unconscious man around to face him until their faces were only a few inches apart.

Lucifer woke with a gasp.

“Hello, sweetling,” the pickup driver’s voice purred. It was distinctively male but there was something inhuman and high pitched about it too.

Lucifer tensed. Whilst a balding and rather short and dumpy specimen of the human race loomed over him, the glowing red of his eyes were anything but human.

“Not going to give mummy a kiss, then?”

After all his and Amenadiel’s searching, scouring the continent and looking for any sign that their mother, and his Father’s ex-wife, was in the country here she was before him, possessing the body of some unsuspecting human.

Before learning that their mother had escaped Hell, Lucifer had feared nothing. But now he did and here she was before him. His father had instructed him to lock her away in Hell millennia ago and in all that time he had paid her no mind. He’d ensured that her little slice of Hell had remained chained and unopened but he had left her in the “care” of his demons. Since she had escaped during Amenadiel’s incapacitation from being stabbed with Maze’s demon dagger by Malcolm, Lucifer had been afraid that she would come after him, seeking vengeance for centuries of torture, or, worse, that she would go after Chloe as a means of hurting him.

Lucifer tried to take a breath so that he could speak but a stabbing pain radiated from his left side and he could take no more than stuttering, shallow breaths. His fingers enclosed around the shard of glass but he was loathe to pull it out in case he bled out. Bloody mortality.

“Oh, yes, my sweetling,” she cooed through her host and stroked Lucifer’s thick, dark hair away from his face. “That looks like it hurts. But hush now, there’s no need to speak, I understand that you’ve been looking for me and here I am.”

The pickup driver’s hand released Lucifer’s shirt, dropping him back into the damp road and sending a spasm of pain rocking his body. Lucifer coughed violently, sending a spray of blood raining down on his face but he’d cleared his lungs enough that he could take a shuddering breath to speak and get onto his knees. “Why… are you… here, _Asherah_?” he rasped. “What do you… want?”

Lucifer had used her name knowing that she would prefer that he call her Mum but he wasn’t going to afford her the luxury of just giving her what she wanted.

His mother fixed him with a hard glare. “My name is _Charlotte_ now, sweetling; it’s a new millennia and that means it’s time for a new name!”

Lucifer didn’t respond as he staggered to his feet, deciding to concentrate on staying vertical and conscious despite the black spots clouding his vision. He didn’t care what his mother had decided to call herself.

Charlotte danced away, skipping and twirling about with her hands in the air; an odd sight when performed by her fleshy host. “I missed you sorely, sweetling,” she pouted like a petulant child, making her host look like an oversized, balding baby. “Millennia I’ve wasted away and not once did my favourite son come and visit me. Someone might think that you don’t love your mother, Samael.”

Lucifer flinched at the name; who would have thought that the Devil would prefer to be called “sweetling” rather than the name that had connotated his father’s love for so long?

He knew she was lying; she’d never cared for him. He had been her jailor longer than humans had walked the earth and before then she’d always favoured Michael over him and his brothers. The demons in Hell had always particularly enjoyed discussing the newest ways Charlotte had promised to take revenge on him when – never _if_ – she escaped.

And now here she was.

“I was also wondering,” she said, dancing still further away. “What you could possibly care about _so_ much that you would actually plead to daddy dearest for help.”

Charlotte was nearing the wrecked police car where Chloe still sat unconscious against her steering wheel. “Or should I say “ _who_ ”?”

“Leave her… alone,” Lucifer growled.

“Oh, don’t worry, Samael,” she said sweetly. “I won’t play _too_ roughly with your toy. You won’t even notice where I break her.” Charlotte ducked into the vehicle and traced a finger along Chloe’s jawline, sending a spasm racking through the Detective’s body.

“STOP!” Lucifer roared, his nastier side coming through; his eyes flashed a bright red and his features contorted into charred, black flesh. Swaying on his feet, Lucifer lurched after his mother. Each step sent pain radiating through him and he felt he was fighting a losing battle with consciousness but he wasn’t going to let Charlotte hurt Chloe.

“Hush, Samael, Mummy’s playing.” She laid a hand against Chloe’s cheek and Chloe woke with a gasp but her eyes were a deep, empty black rather than their usual brilliant blue.

Lucifer finally reached the police car and reached inside to grab the collar of the pickup truck driver’s shirt and with the strength he had left he pulled Charlotte free of the car and sent her host flying through the air several feet. Lucifer slumped against the car, effectively blocking Charlotte’s access to Chloe any further, as the pickup driver’s body landed with a doughy thwack against the damp road. Chloe was once again unconscious and from an initial once over seemed no worse for wear despite whatever his mother had done to her.

“Is that any way to treat your mother?” Charlotte screeched, the pickup driver’s eyes flashed a brighter red than they’d been before. She advanced on Lucifer but he was ready for her and he clamped a hand around the pickup driver’s throat and lifted him easily from the ground.

Despite being possessed, Charlotte only had the strength that the pickup driver possessed and despite her digging the man’s grubby fingernails deep into Lucifer’s arms, leaving bloody gouges behind, Lucifer didn’t loosen his grip. All of those movies about people becoming possessed by a demon had always gotten that wrong, no one’s head ever spun around three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, projectile vomited or crawled around on the ceiling like Spiderman; they were amusing to watch, though.

Charlotte didn’t care about her host, he was simply a bag of meat that she could control, but she would be thrown out, and hopefully sent back to Hell, if Lucifer killed the pickup driver. He didn’t want to kill the man, it was not his fault that he’d been possessed and he had no control over what he was doing now, he was completely innocent, but if it meant that Lucifer could stop her from harming Chloe then he would do whatever it took.

Realising what was happening, Charlotte became desperate and the pickup truck driver’s hands gripped the shard of glass still protruding from Lucifer’s abdomen and pressed into further into him, eliciting a grunt of pain from the larger man but he didn’t allow it to stop him.

“I won’t let you hurt her,” Lucifer grunted.

The expression on the pickup driver’s face changed completely to a mixture of surprise and disgust. “I thought they were exaggerating when I overheard the demons talking about how _weak_ you’d become all because you’re _smitten_ with some mortal woman but I was wrong. But so were they, you’re not _just_ weak, you’re _pathetic_. After what you Fell for, Samael, you fall, now, for a mortal? You’re supposed to be the Devil.”

“I am still the Devil,” Lucifer growled and once again his eyes and face transformed. “And you’ll do well to remember that.”

A sadistic smile twisted the pickup driver’s face. “We’ll see about that.” Charlotte pulled the piece of glass viciously from Lucifer’s abdomen.

Lucifer doubled over from the sharp pain that radiated from his body but he didn’t loosen his grip on the pickup truck driver’s throat.

“You should go back to hell, Lucifer,” his mother rasped around his tightening grip. “You’re becoming weaker the longer you spend around your pet mortal.”

Lucifer ignored her words; they were similar to those he’d heard all too frequently from Amenadiel. If he killed the pickup driver now Charlotte would hopefully be sent back to Hell and all of this would be over before it had truly begun. It would be a small mercy, one life for hundreds, if not thousands. But before Lucifer could bring himself to do it, the red faded from the pickup driver’s eyes as Charlotte released her connection with him.

A high pitched squeal was elicited from the man as he saw Lucifer’s true form before he was able to transform himself back. Lucifer dropped the pickup driver back down onto the road, his energy suddenly leaving him.

“Oh my God, oh my God…” the pickup driver repeated as a mantra as he scuttled away from Lucifer.

“Save your breath,” Lucifer sighed as he sunk back against the police car and pressed a hand against his bleeding abdomen in a vain attempt to staunch the bleeding. “He can’t help you now. He can’t help any of us.”

The pickup driver’s mantra was the last thing Lucifer heard as he slipped back into darkness.

*******

With a groan and cradling her head between her hands, Chloe woke from unconsciousness. What the hell had happened? That pickup truck had just ploughed straight into them. It had looked like he’d been aiming for them. Surely that couldn’t be right, though, could it?

Chloe’s head was pounding. She would probably have a concussion and the cut on her forehead from where she’d struck the steering wheel would likely need a stitch or two to hold it together. She also felt decidedly nauseated and whenever she closed her eyes she saw a blinding red light that looked like flames. Chloe thought that the light behind her eyes could have been from the pickup’s headlights but the longer she held her eyes closed the more she began to doubt that that was the cause of it.

A cool breeze wafted over her from the shattered windscreen and then she remembered that Lucifer had gone through it from the force of the crash because he’d not been wearing a seatbelt. “Lucifer,” she breathed, searching the piece of road she could see in front of her for any sign of him. Her heart began to pound in her chest. Maybe Lucifer had been run over by the pickup after he’d been thrown through the windshield and he was trapped beneath it. She didn’t want to entertain the thought but she’d worked too many car accident scenes when she’d first become a cop not to consider it.

Chloe heard a quiet phrase being repeated over and over to her right but she couldn’t quite make out the words. She turned to investigate the source of the noise and saw a portly man curled up on himself, rocking slowly, in the gutter a few feet away from where her partner lay slumped in the doorway of the car facing the man as if he had been trying to protect her.

She called out to Lucifer but she got no response. She couldn’t see how badly he’d been injured in the crash but her experience told her that he had likely been injured quite badly.

Chloe tried to release her seatbelt but the button wouldn’t release no matter how hard she slammed her thumb against it. Reaching across the car and pulling open the glovebox, she grabbed the small knife she kept in there for emergencies and sliced through her seatbelt to free herself. Not caring what other injuries she might have, Chloe clambered over the gearbox as there was no way she could get out her own door as the pickup truck had come to a rest against it and propped herself next to Lucifer’s head.

His face was coated in a thick sheen of blood from the numerous cuts across his face; none of them were serious and most of them had already stopped bleeding. However, beneath the blood, his face was deathly pale. Chloe reached under Lucifer’s chin and only found a weak pulse. Panic rising, Chloe carefully extracted herself from the car, mindful not to jostle or move Lucifer more than was absolutely necessary, and knelt on the road beside him. His breathing was shallow but steady at the very least.

Chloe moved Lucifer’s hand away from where it was pressed lightly against a large blood stain on his abdomen and cursed when she saw how badly he was injured. She removed her own jacket and applied pressure to the wound but Lucifer had already lost so much blood that she wasn’t sure if she was making a difference. 

The sight reminded her too vividly of how Lucifer looked after Malcolm had shot him and then stood over him taunting him. She’d felt helpless then and felt helpless now.

Chloe fumbled in her pocket and pulled out her phone and called dispatch. “This is Unit 8-3-1, I-I need an ambulance to the corner of Hollywood and Wilcox, Code 3.” 

Lucifer groaned in pain as Chloe applied more pressure. At least he was still with her.

“Just hold on, Lucifer,” she breathed. At the corner of her eyes, Chloe felt the first prick of tears. Despite how much he frustrated her and caused her more problems than he helped her solve, she couldn’t deny that she had come to care deeply about him and loved working with him.

“To what?” came a quiet reply.

Chloe looked up at Lucifer’s face to find him watching her. A broad smile stretched itself across her face and her partner returned it.

“Detective, if I’d known that all it would take for you to fall to your knees for me was to bleed out I would have done it long ago.”

“Shut up, Lucifer,” Chloe released a shaky laugh, not at all meaning the words. Of course he would be making jokes now, as lame as they were. “You’re going to be okay.”

Lucifer’s charming smile was marred by the blood staining his teeth. “Of course I am, I’m immortal, remember?”

Chloe couldn’t help laughing again and shook her head. After the number of times he’d bled in her presence it was amazing that he still harped on about his immortality-shtick. 

Lucifer tried to shift himself and grimaced in pain. “Bloody hell, this hurts.”

“Of course it does, we were in a car accident and you were thrown through a windshield.”

Lucifer’s blood was starting to soak through Chloe’s jacket and the pool of blood beneath him was still growing. Her partner also seemed to also be losing his battle with consciousness. Chloe wanted to keep him talking, afraid of what would happen if he passed out again. “And you were impaled. Do you know what it was?”

Lucifer gestured vaguely toward a large piece of glass covered in blood near his foot and closed his eyes.

“Keep your eyes open, Lucifer.” Chloe squeezed his hand until he opened his eyes once more but it looked like it had been a struggle. Finally she could hear sirens in the distance but they were still some distance away. “Why did you take it out?”

Lucifer faltered for a moment, as if he was searching for the right answer to give her but it should have been simple. “It was bothering me,” he finally replied with a shrug.

Chloe knew there was more that he wasn’t telling her. She wondered how and why he’d come over to her car, she could see small pools of his blood shining in the streetlight as they wound their way down the street from where he’d initially been thrown from her car to where he sat now. It had surely taken some great effort for him to make his way over here but she couldn’t understand why he had done so. She also wondered why the pickup truck driver was cowering in the gutter and muttering “oh my God” over and over. The pickup driver’s state reminded Chloe of how young Lindsay Jolsen had looked when Lucifer had been towering over her before Chloe had shot him – at his insistence – and of how Jimmy Barnes had reacted when she’d mentioned Lucifer’s name to him in that psychiatric hospital. She put those thoughts out of her mind, there were more important things to worry about now. The questions could come later when Lucifer was okay.

Lucifer’s eyes had drifted closed once again but no matter how much she shook him, Chloe couldn’t get him to open his eyes again.

Where in hell was that bloody ambulance?

“Lucifer, you have to wake up, okay?” Chloe rested her free hand against his cheek, finding it slightly cool to the touch rather than its usual warmth. “ _Please, wake up_.”

“I’m still here, Chloe,” he said, still with his eyes closed. “I’m not going anywhere. You wouldn’t let me go, anyway, even if I wanted to.”

Now she was worried, he never called her ‘Chloe’ but now he’d done it twice in one night. Chloe sniffed back the tears that were threatening to spill over. “Damn right I’m not going to let you go anywhere. Who else would be my partner?”

A small smile spread across Lucifer’s face. “I thought you said we weren’t partners.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, even near death he was still being his usual snarky self.

Finally the ambulance pulled up to the scene and the two paramedics jumped out with their bags at the ready. One, the male of the duo, came and knelt beside Lucifer whilst the other, a female, went and checked on the pickup truck driver before coming over to assist her partner.

“Ma’am, I need you to take a step back so I can help him,” the male paramedic said but the words didn’t reach Chloe. Lucifer had finally opened his eyes again and she was too busy memorising his face, just in case something happened to him; but she didn’t want to consider that right now.

“Ma’am!”

The female paramedic had to physically move Chloe out of the way so that they could get to Lucifer but she didn’t allow herself to be moved more than a few steps away from him. Chloe hugged herself tightly as she watched, feeling completely useless because she couldn’t help her friend. She had to restrain herself from going in to help Lucifer when the paramedics moved him so that he was lying down and he’d cried out in pain.

He was going to make it through this. He had to.

Chloe barely heard another car arrive on the scene or the running footsteps coming towards her. It was only when Dan spun her around and wrapped her up in his arms that she was able to blink. When had she started crying?

“Shh, Chloe, it’s alright,” Dan attempted to soothe her.

She wanted to tell him that he could be wrong but she didn’t want to say the words out loud lest they come true. How could Dan know that Lucifer was going to be alright? Stupid Detective Douche, he thought he knew everything.

“We need to get him back to the hospital before he bleeds out,” Chloe heard the male paramedic mutter to his partner.

Dan had to hold Chloe back so that she didn’t run back to Lucifer’s side. He wasn’t moving and if it wasn’t for the small, portable heart monitor that one of the paramedics had attached to his finger that was beeping out Lucifer’s slow but steady heartbeat she would have thought that he’d died.

“I have to go with him,” Chloe heard herself saying but Dan wouldn’t let her go.

A disgruntled look passed over Dan’s features but Chloe ignored it. Let him be jealous; Lucifer was her partner and she cared about him. “Let them do their job, Chloe.”

The female paramedic rushed past Dan and Chloe with the stretcher and helped her partner carefully load Lucifer onto it. This time he didn’t cry out at all and his quietness and stillness made Chloe cry harder still.

Dan pulled Chloe out of the way as the paramedics rushed past with Lucifer. He looked tiny on the stretcher; his eyes were closed and oxygen mask covered half of his face.

Chloe grabbed the arm of the female paramedic before she could jump into the driver’s seat of the ambulance. “Where are you taking him?” As soon as she could, Chloe was going to follow the ambulance; even if it meant stealing Dan’s car.

“Cedars-Sinai, but we have to go _now_.”

Chloe finally released the paramedics arm and watched on helplessly as she jumped into the driver’s seat and took off with a faint screech of tyres along the lights flashing and siren blaring.

Dan released a heavy sigh from beside her. “We should get an ambulance for you too,” he said as the ambulance’s taillights disappeared into the distance. “That cut on your head needs attention, you’ve probably got a concussion.”

Chloe just shrugged him off. She didn’t care about herself; she needed to make sure Lucifer was going to live.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the very first End Note! I've added it because what I'm discussing here spoils the chapter so if you've not read it yet, head back to the top and read through and then come back!! Go on! Go.
> 
> OK, you've read it? Good.
> 
> This chapter signifies the entrance of Lucifer's mum. Initially I had named her "Asherah" after the most popular fan theory since the Season 1 finale but, while I was writing this week, we got the news of Tricia Helfer joining the cast as "Mum" with the name Charlotte Richards and so I decided to update my story to reflect that news. I keep the reference to "Asherah" and Lucifer calling her that because in my mind "Charlotte" is a pseudonym that Lucifer's mother has likely taken up to fit in more and so that's how I decided to take it in my story.
> 
> My "Charlotte" is inspired by Helena Bonham Carter because when I was imagining the Devil's mother that was the image that came to mind (even though in this chapter she's possessing a pickup truck driver rather than her "true form").
> 
> Anyway. Thank you wholeheartedly for reading my story, it means the absolute world to me that you're taking time out of your day to give my story a chance. If you loved it, or even if you didn't particularly much like it and want to give me some _constructive_ criticism, then leave a comment; knowing that people are liking my story really does give me inspiration to write.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4!
> 
> Really very sorry that it's been more than a week since I posted Chapter 3 and the fact I left it on such a huge cliffhanger; I hope this chapter makes up for the wait!
> 
> Again, I can't thank everyone enough for the kudos and comments, knowing people are wanting to know what happens next really gives me the motivation I need to keep writing. So _really_ thank you.
> 
> I hope you enjoy Chapter 4 of _Where the Devil Don't Go_

_Previously on Lucifer: “Where the Devil Don’t Go” – After speaking with Michael Preston, a suspect in the murder of nightclub owner Jared Wright, Lucifer Morningstar and Chloe Decker learnt that there was another mysterious man looking for Wright, demanding to be paid. On their way back to Lux, Lucifer and Chloe were run off the road by a pickup truck driver possessed by Lucifer’s mother, Charlotte. Lucifer had a brief confrontation with her where she made it clear that she wanted Lucifer back in Hell after she had nearly harmed Chloe and left Lucifer bleeding from a deep wound in his abdomen and near death._

#### Chapter 4

Chloe let herself into the elevator that led up to Lucifer’s apartment above Lux. She’d initially called in to the hospital to visit him but had been informed when she’d presented herself to the nurse’s station in the ward Lucifer had been relocated to after a short stay in intensive care that he had signed himself out against doctor’s orders.

It had been four days since the pickup truck driver had crashed into their car and Lucifer had been seriously injured when he’d been thrown from the car and impaled on a piece of glass. Chloe had followed the ambulance to Cedars-Sinai, where they’d taken Lucifer, once more detectives had arrived on scene. She’d not waited around to tell her peers what had happened or checked to see if the pickup truck driver was okay and it was only because Dan had relented into driving her, on the proviso that a doctor look her over while they were at the hospital, that she’d not stolen his car keys and taken his car for herself.

When they’d arrived at the hospital, Chloe had barged in and accosted the first person in scrubs she saw and, flashing her badge, had demanded to see Lucifer Morningstar. There had been a few minutes of confusion as the doctors and nurses had tried to figure out where Lucifer had been taken after he’d been bought in. It had left Chloe worried that Lucifer hadn’t arrived at the hospital alive, but finally the doctor she’d accosted, a Dr William Rush, had some answers and could tell her that Lucifer had been immediately taken up to surgery. Seeing the state Chloe was in, with the large gash on her forehead and multiple other small cuts and bruises, Dan got his wish as Dr Rush had insisted on admitting her to the hospital to be stitched up and for observation.

Chloe had never particularly been a very good patient. She rarely got sick and even when she did, as a single mother and a cop, she usually just powered through it anyway. She also hated being idle for too long and it had been all the worse not knowing what was happening with Lucifer.

As she was not his next of kin she wasn’t privy to any information about his condition no matter how much she flashed her badge at any doctor or nurse who walked past her hospital room door. Chloe hadn’t even been able to provide the doctors with information about Lucifer’s next of kin and it had been then she’d realised just how little she actually knew about her partner. Sure, there was Amenadiel, the man Lucifer had introduced to her as his brother when they’d been on the hunt for his “angel wings”, but she didn’t know how to get in contact with him.

She’d considered calling Mazikeen but thought better of it at the thought of the volatile woman creating chaos in the emergency department. Instead, she’d shed herself of the all too revealing hospital gown they’d given her and abandoned her hospital room to do what she did best. Find out information.

Chloe had been to the hospital enough times in a professional context that she knew her way around without having to ask anyone for directions and, despite the newly applied bandage to her forehead, she’d looked for all the world like a cop on her way to question a suspect or witness admitted to the hospital. It hadn’t taken too long before Chloe found herself outside of the operating theatres and at that time of morning there had been only one in use.

Through the swinging doors Chloe had heard the constant noises from the myriad of machines that had been attached to Lucifer but it was the beep of the heart monitor that she’d focused on. That sound meant that his heart was still beating strong. Chloe had only taken a quick peek through the small observation window in the door before she’d had to look away. There’d just been too much blood. Usually blood didn’t make her squeamish but when it was coming from her partner… it was all just too much.

Sinking to the floor next to the operating room doors, Chloe had closed her eyes and just concentrated on the sound of Lucifer’s heartbeat through the machine.

“Miss?” a voice had said quietly.

Chloe had opened her eyes to find a young nurse standing in front of her.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t be here,” the nurse had told her.

With a wave of her badge the nurse had backed off but it had only been a temporary fix. Eventually the nurse had returned with her supervisor, who was unfortunately Chloe’s own doctor, Dr Rush, and he’d insisted that she return to her room and stay there. However, in the time she’d been outside the operative theatre, Chloe had at least learned from the voices floating through the swinging doors that Lucifer was going to make it and pull through completely, so she had been able to return to her room with a feeling of utter relief.

Now, as the doors pinged quietly open to let Chloe into Lucifer’s apartment, she just felt frustrated and annoyed with the man.

Classical music, Chopin if she remembered her high school music classes well enough, filled the apartment and covered her footsteps as she walked further into the apartment. Despite the music playing, there was no sign of Lucifer but from his previous exploits she was loathe to call out for him in case he was currently “ _entertaining_ ” someone.

Chloe ran her hand along Lucifer’s bar. It had recently been refurbished but looked identical to its predecessor after that one had been destroyed at roughly the same time that Lucifer had been suspected of killing Reverend Jacob Williams. Chloe had asked Lucifer what had happened to it but he had continually been elusive about how it’d been destroyed. She had her suspicions, including that it had been destroyed in a confrontation between Lucifer and the Reverend or a meteor had struck Lucifer’s apartment bar, but, as it had actually been Malcolm who’d murdered Williams in an attempt to frame Lucifer and there had been no recent reports of meteor strikes, she just wasn’t sure any more. She was probably never going to learn the truth.

“Ah! Detective!” Lucifer said jovially as he exited his bedroom dressed solely in a gun metal grey dressing gown; the same one he’d been wearing the morning after she’d drunkenly traipsed over to his apartment and he’d fooled her into thinking they’d slept together. “What a lovely surprise.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” The conversation that Chloe had gone over in her head on her way over here, where she’d stayed completely calm and had convinced Lucifer to return to hospital, went completely out the window.

Confusion crossed Lucifer’s face. “I live here?”

“You should be in the hospital,” she pointed out, some of the calmness she’d initially been hoping for returning to her voice. “You nearly died.”

Lucifer scoffed loudly and waved her off in his usual dismissive manner. 

In truth, it had been a heavenly intervention from Amenadiel when Lucifer had first arrived at the hospital that had ensured that he had survived but he couldn’t exactly explain that to Chloe. Whilst their father had granted Lucifer to stay on Earth while he and Amenadiel hunted their mother, without his Pentecostal coin Lucifer didn’t want to risk another trip to Hell just in case he wasn’t able to leave again. Better to be safe than stuck in Hell.

Chloe couldn’t believe how flippant Lucifer was being about nearly dying. “You should still be in the hospital, Lucifer! Why the hell did you leave against doctor’s orders?”

Without Chloe in the hospital, Lucifer’s superhuman healing powers had returned and within forty-eight hours he was as good as new and it would have been hard to explain his miraculous recovery to the doctors. Again, it was not something he could explain to her.

“Oh, you know,” Lucifer said with a smirk. “The Devil’s in the details.”

Chloe threw her arms up in frustration. “What the hell does that even mean?”

The smirk just remained on Lucifer’s face causing Chloe to sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose. Why had she been so worried about him in the first place?

“Detective, as I’ve told you innumerable times before, I’m immortal and the fact that I’m standing before you completely unscathed should be testament to that.”

Lucifer turned in a small circle with his hands outstretched, just as he’d done when he’d attempted to follow the third rule on the _Conduct of Kickass Cavemen_ list and had “taken a risk” and presented himself to Chloe naked before the Player’s Party. At least this time he was wearing clothes, even if it was just a dressing gown.

Chloe couldn’t deny that Lucifer looked perfectly fine standing before her like that. She meant the words in a _healthy_ kind of way not in a “he looks incredibly handsome” kind of way, not that he wasn’t handsome, he certainly was, but… never mind.

Chloe shook her head to clear the thoughts. Maybe she was still suffering from some ill-effects from her concussion. “Anyway, the reason I was going to visit you in the hospital is because there’s been another murder of a nightclub owner.”

Lucifer’s face immediately became serious. “Who?” he said curtly. 

“Harrison Archer.”

From all accounts that Chloe had received on the phone, Harrison Archer had been completely butchered in his office at the Lure Nightclub and, once again, no one had seen or heard anything.

While Chloe had been recuperating from the car accident, Dan had provisionally taken over the investigation into Jared Wright’s murder, the first nightclub owner murdered, and had questioned Wright’s personal accountant about the Avalon nightclub’s haemorrhaging money. Unfortunately, all that had amounted to was that Jared Wright had made some bad investment decisions and had tried to use the Avalon to cover his own personal losses without much luck. The lead was a complete dead end. Their best suspect was still the man that had stabbed Michael Preston, Chloe’s initial suspect, and demanded that he be paid by Wright.

“It seems that someone’s going after nightclub owners,” Chloe was watching Lucifer carefully, gauging his reaction to the news. “As a precaution, we’re putting you under police protection until we catch this guy.”

Lucifer kept his face expressionless. A police babysitter would make searching for Charlotte all the more difficult and it was an inconvenience that he was going to avoid if he could help it. “No, thank you, Detective. I’m perfectly fine at looking after myself should someone come here and try to kill me.”

Although, he wasn’t going too well on that front considering that both Malcolm and the demented socialite Vanessa Dunlear had pointed guns at him on the same night in his own home and the latter had actually shot him. But Chloe needn’t know about that.

“You don’t get a choice, Lucifer.” A level of authority entered Chloe’s voice but she kind of doubted it would work on him. “Someone is doing vivisections on nightclub owners and I’m going to do whatever it takes to ensure that you remain safe.”

“Ah, see, Detective, I knew you cared.” Lucifer’s trademark smile spread across his face. “I’ll only consent to police protection if _you_ are the one doing the protecting.”

Despite his propensity to exsanguinate in Chloe’s presence he was willing to take the risk that someone may try to harm him to ensure himself that no harm came to his Detective. With his mother on the loose Lucifer wanted to keep an eye on her as much as possible and what better way to ensure that she stayed safe than to have her think that she was keeping _him_ safe.

Chloe sighed. While it wasn’t the most ideal situation, usually the job was given to a rookie cop rather than a detective, he was already following her around in his capacity as a civilian consultant and this way she could ensure that he wasn’t going to charm away or lose his police protection. “Fine.”

“Lovely!”

Chloe jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “I’ve got to head to the Lure Nightclub to question a potential witness. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“I’m coming with you,” Lucifer declared and ducked back into his bedroom.

Chloe made to follow him, to tell him that he was, in fact, staying at his apartment, but stopped when she noticed that he’d stripped himself of his dressing gown in the doorway and hadn’t been wearing anything beneath it. “Lucifer, you should be resting,” she called out to him, carefully averting her eyes. She’d seen him naked too many times as it was.

“Detective, as you can clearly see I am in perfect health and I will be coming with you no matter how much you ask me to “ _stay_ ”. Besides, you’re my police guardian angel and how are you going to protect me if we’re not together?”

Chloe decided it was in her best interest not to argue. No matter what she said Lucifer would probably have some smart arsed remark to come back with. Sometimes it just wasn’t worth it.

*******

The scene at Lure Nightclub was much more subdued than it had been at the Avalon Hollywood. Harrison Archer’s body had been found before Lure had opened for the night and so it had been a small task to shut down the nightclub before the patrons had been admitted and sullied the crime scene. Police cars occupied the parking spaces out the front, usually reserved for limousines and VIP’s cars, their lights flashing and the officers milling about them having quiet conversations. Chloe’s new black, unmarked Ford Crown Victoria fit in perfectly with those around them but she still missed her old car.

Lucifer followed silently behind Chloe into the nightclub. Lure Nightclub had once again been a club he had frequented during his time in Los Angeles and Harrison Archer had been a good friend. He was beginning to wonder if there was a possibility that Charlotte had something to do with these murders since she’d made her presence known to him after Jared Wright’s murder. It all just seemed a little bit too coincidental that she would possess someone and force them to steer their car into Chloe’s, while someone – or something, Lucifer hadn’t ruled out the fact that it could be some demon doing Charlotte’s bidding – was killing the owners of nightclubs who had been his friend. Perhaps it was a warning. Charlotte wanted him back in Hell, no doubt, but that was one place where the Devil don’t go. Not if he could help it.

Chloe led Lucifer past the other detectives and the forensic team to a young woman sitting in a chair next to young rookie officer Andrew Baker, the same officer Lucifer had attempted to bait into shooting him when he’d been placed under arrest for Reverend Williams’ murder. The young woman looked decidedly like she was about to throw up and wishing she was anywhere else entirely. Spotting Lucifer, Officer Baker’s own complexion had become grey as well.

“Uh, Detective Decker, this is, uh…” Officer Baker stumbled over his words, addressing Chloe but his attention solely on Lucifer.

Lucifer just smiled pleasantly at him. He had no ill feelings towards the young officer. It was not as though he’d actually managed to shoot Lucifer; thanks to Amenadiel.

“This is, uh…” Baker checked his notes for the third time. “Molly Dunham. She was, uh, the one that found Mr Harrison’s, I mean, Mr Archer’s body.”

“Thank you, Officer Baker, you can go,” Chloe said coolly.

The young police officer seemed all too willing to comply and practically ran away, giving only the most fleeting glance back at Lucifer as he made his getaway.

Molly Dunham was in her early thirties with long brown hair and a pale complexion hidden by a number of piercings and tattoos. Despite her tough exterior, Molly Dunham looked like a lost little girl at that very moment.

Chloe knelt down next to the young woman but Molly Dunham refused to look anywhere but at a spot on the floor between her Converse Chucks. 

“Ms Dunham?” Chloe’s voice was quiet and calming but still brooked no argument that she was in charge here. “I’m Detective Chloe Decker, and this is my associate Lucifer Morningstar, are you okay to answer some questions?”

Lucifer was always amazed at the Detective’s way with witnesses and suspects alike. 

“Yeah, sure thing,” Molly nodded.

Chloe flipped open her notebook and held her pen ready to write down any relevant information. “What time did you arrive at work today, Molly?”

Molly moved to check her wrist, looking for a watch, but finding her wrist bare dropped her back into her lap. “6 o’clock, I think. I help Harry with setting up the bar, ensuring everything’s been restocked and that we’re ready for the night but tonight Harry didn’t show up.”

“Is that when you found him?” Chloe prompted.

Molly nodded again. “Uh, yeah, it was. Sometimes he gets caught up on the phone or balancing the books and forgets to check the time, so I didn’t think anything of it having to go back to his office to get him.”

“But someone had killed him,” Lucifer said bluntly. Anger had edged into Lucifer’s voice and it surprised Chloe hearing it there, usually he was so calm and collected around witnesses.

Molly could only nod mutely, her gaze returning to the spot between her shoes.

Not wanting to force the poor girl to live through that moment again describing it, Chloe changed her line of questioning. “Molly, do you know if Lure was having any financial problems?”

The young woman was taken aback by the question. “N-no. We’ve actually been getting more people through the door since Boss Nova came a few weeks ago and raved about us on Twitter. So, I’d guess the revenue would’ve been up but…” Molly’s voice became quiet, “…you would’ve had to ask Harry about that.”

Chloe nodded sympathetically. “Has there been anyone hanging around Lure recently? Or has someone been asking to see Mr Archer?”

Molly Dunham considered the questions for a few moments before answering. “There was a guy hanging around the emergency exit yesterday,” she said cautiously. “He’s been here a few times in the last week or so, I think? I’d asked him if I could help him with anything but he would leave without saying anything.”

Lucifer and Chloe exchanged a look but didn’t want to get their hopes up in case this wasn’t the same man that Michael Preston had described. “Would you be able to tell us what this man looked like, Miss Dunham?” Chloe asked.

“Uh, yeah, I think so, I mean, I could try?” Molly murmured. “He, uh, was mostly bald, like, bald in the middle and really short hair around the sides, and he hadn’t shaved in a while but it wasn’t, like, you know, a proper beard. He really looked like he was homeless, that’s why I asked if I could help him. You don’t think that he was the one that killed Harry, do you? He seemed really harmless.”

“Well, sometimes the people who seem the most harmless are actually the most da-” Lucifer started to say before Chloe elbowed him in the abdomen.

Chloe gave Lucifer an odd look when he didn’t react to her elbowing him. It was the exact same place where he’d been impaled on the glass but the way Lucifer reacted, as if Chloe had done nothing at all, you wouldn’t have known that he’d been injured only four days earlier. Okay, maybe Lucifer just had an insanely high pain threshold but surely he would’ve reacted the tiniest bit. He _had_ nearly died from the injury.

“We can’t comment on that at the moment, Miss Dunham,” Chloe told their witness. “But he is someone we would very much like to speak with. If you see him again or you can think of any more details that you can give us, please give me a call.”

Molly inspected the card Chloe gave her carefully. “Okay, I can do that. Just, please, find who did this to Harry.”

“We’ll do all we can.”

Chloe tucked away her notepad and cast her eyes over the crime scene. All around her forensic techs were carefully dusting for finger prints and picking up things she couldn’t see with needle-nosed tweezers, and cops and detectives alike were discussing the gruesome state in which Harrison Archer’s body had been left. It frustrated her that so many of her co-workers had such little respect for the victim or his employee who found his body still sitting only feet away and pretending she couldn’t hear the horrific details about her boss’s last moment. Chloe rolled her eyes skyward in her frustration and it was then that she noticed the small black camera with its little red light blinking down on her.

She spun on her heel and addressed Molly Dunham once again. “Do the cameras record all the time?”

Molly was taken back by the urgency in the Detective’s question. “Uh, yeah, they do. Even when we’re closed because we’ve had problems with people breaking in to steal booze in the past.”

“Is there a camera over the emergency exit?”

Lucifer picked up on Chloe’s brilliant line of thinking and became interested in what the young barmaid had to say. If the killer was the man who had been hanging around the emergency exit then there was a good change they’d have a good image of his face and, with luck, he’d have slipped up and showed his face tonight too.

“Yeah, there is. All of the recordings go to Harry’s office,” Molly said, anticipating the next question. “He keeps them for a month before he overwrites them so the ones from last week should still be there.”

“Thank you, Molly,” Chloe said absentmindedly as she ducked toward the doorway that lead to Harrison Archer’s office.

Lucifer made to follow the detective but Molly suddenly grabbed his wrist and he turned back with an eyebrow quirked, wondering what the girl could possibly want. But the bright red colour in her eyes meant that it hadn’t been Molly who had wanted his attention.

“Your little pet mortal is a clever one, sweetling,” Charlotte purred through Molly.

Lucifer was unnerved by the fact that his mother was actively watching him and Chloe but he didn’t let it show. “What do you want?” he ground out as he positioned himself to hide the girls glowing red eyes from the surrounding detectives. It would be difficult to try and explain why their witnesses’ eyes had suddenly started glowing and it was a line of questioning Lucifer would rather avoid.

This time Charlotte wasn’t playing games. “Go back to Hell, Samael. Go back before I make you.”

Mindful of the numerous detectives surrounding them, Lucifer kept his volume and anger in check. “I would like to see you try.”

Charlotte ran a hand along Lucifer’s cheek and spoke quietly. “Wouldn’t you, though?”

And just like that the red bled from Molly’s eyes and Charlotte was once again gone.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Molly said quietly and dropped her hand away from Lucifer’s cheek, confusion playing across her face. Naturally she had no recollection of why she had been stroking the police consultant’s cheek.

Lucifer opened his mouth to tell her some excuse but couldn’t think of one that wouldn’t elicit more questions and so just turned and stalked after Chloe.

“What kept you?” Chloe asked as Lucifer sidled up to her but her attention was on the forensic tech currently tapping away on Harrison Archer’s computer and so he didn’t feel the need to respond. He’d made a promise never to lie to the Detective and he didn’t want to start now.

Archer’s body had been removed before Chloe and Lucifer had arrived but the evidence of what had happened to him still remained. A large pool of blood on the floor behind the desk showed where Archer had been tied to his desk chair and flayed alive, just as Jared Wright had been. Archer seemed to have put up less of a fight than Wright had as there was less arterial spray across the walls. That or the killer had just gotten better at making his victims exsanguinate a lot faster.

“A-ha! I’ve got something, Detective Decker,” the forensic tech on the computer swivelled the screen to face Chloe and Lucifer.

The partners moved in closer to inspect the screen until their shoulders were touching lightly. Chloe was surprised by Lucifer’s closeness and turned her head slightly to inspect his profile but the man seemed oblivious to the contact and the heat he radiated.

On the screen a high definition screenshot from the previous Mondays’ security footage filled the screen and showed the short alley out the back of Lure Nightclub and in the centre of the shot a balding man, just as Molly Dunham had described, with dark stubble across his cheeks. The man wore an oversized rain coat that the high quality video showed held several stains, lending credence to Molly Dunham’s thought that he is homeless. The forensic technician had stopped the video on a frame where the man just so happened to be looking up and glancing right into the cameras lense.

A sadistic smile spread across Lucifer’s face. “We’ve got the son of a bitch.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back with Chapter 5 of _Where the Devil Don't Go_. This is where the story really starts to kick off and things start getting set in motion.
> 
> Once more, because I can't say it enough, an absolutely _huge_ thank you to everyone who has left me a comment or kudos; it means the world to me and keeps me writing.
> 
> I hope you enjoy Chapter 5!

_Previously on Lucifer: “Where the Devil Don’t Go” – After the murder of another nightclub owner, Harrison Archer the owner of Lure Nightclub, Lucifer Morningstar and Chloe Decker finally have a solid lead when a man who may be the killer of both Jared Wright and Harrison Archer made the mistake of being seen on CCTV. However, things are becoming increasingly more complicated for Lucifer as his mother, Charlotte, continually possesses unsuspecting humans and demands that Lucifer return to Hell._

#### Chapter 5

Lucifer sat perched on the edge of Chloe’s desk. He’d been there for the last few hours flipping through an endless number of magazines he seemed to possess, rather than helping Chloe trawl through the endless books of mugshots, and only piping up every so often to show Chloe a dress on a celebrity he thought she would look good in.

Chloe had offered Lucifer a chair on countless occasions, even one that had been in a completely different room despite the knowledge that it was probably in her best interest to keep an eye on Lucifer Morningstar at all times, but he’d insisted that if someone was, in fact, targeting nightclub owners then he wanted to be as close as possible to his “police guardian angel” and so she was stuck with him obstructing half of her desk.

“You could make yourself useful, you know,” she grumbled. Chloe doubted that Lucifer was listening to her at all, he’d currently ignored all of her requests to get his backside off her desk and lack of interest in the dresses he’d shoved under her nose. When there hadn’t been any new information on Jared Wright’s and Harrison Archer’s murderer Lucifer seemed to have lost interest and had turned his attention to other endeavours, which seemed to involve annoying Chloe as much as was humanly possible and taking up as much of her desk as he could.

“Oh, but I am being helpful, Detective,” Lucifer said, surprising Chloe that he had in fact heard her but still not bothering to looking up from his magazine. “I’m helping you ensure that no harm comes to my person.”

“That’s not what I meant, Lucifer, and you know it.” She tried to keep the annoyance out of her voice but failed miserably.

The mugshots in the books were starting to blend into one another and when Chloe closed her eyes the menacing faces had morphed into one indistinguishable face that somehow resembled that actor who’d played “ _Dexter_ ” in that show of the same name. Chloe wasn’t sure if that said something for the type of person who was most likely to commit a crime or that she’d just been at this for too long but they had no other way of finding out who the man lurking behind Lure Nightclub had been.

Security vision from the Avalon Hollywood, the site of the first nightclub owner murders, had been revisited in the hope that the man might have slipped up twice and would be present on the Avalon’s security vision but the forensic techs had come up with nothing. So much blood had been sprayed around during Jared Wright’s murder and it had soaked into Wright’s computer motherboard and completely fried it and no matter what the techs tried the footage couldn’t be salvaged.

The uniformed cops had spent much of the last two days rounding up the local contingency of homeless people looking for the man seen in the CCTV and questioning them all, asking if they’d ever seen him before or where else he might be. So far none of them had been helpful but had still received a hot meal for their troubles; you never knew when the cooperation of the homeless population would be needed to help solve a crime so it was best to keep them on your side.

Chloe was starting to get frustrated with the case. They finally had a solid lead but she felt no closer to solving the case than she had when they’d first questioned Michael Preston. Chloe let out a loud groan and laid her head against the mugshot book she currently had open. She wanted to find this guy before he killed anyone else but she had no idea where to start and she felt like she was wasting precious time flipping through the damn mugshot books.

“Come now, Detective,” Lucifer said jovially, finally putting down his magazine and turning slightly on the desk top to face her. “What is it you usually do when you can’t find the miscreant for whom you’re searching?”

Chloe lifted her head and rested it on her hand. “I have fresh eyes look at it, so if you could just have a quick look through these…” she pushed the book she’d been flipping through towards him in the hope she’d see how desperate she was and actually help.

“No, that’s boring.” The words had Chloe rolling her eyes before he’d finished saying them. “But it’s not as if our mystery man would have just appeared out of thin air outside the Avalon or Lure, he had to get there somehow.”

“Traffic cams…” Chloe breathed, mentally beating herself up about not thinking of them sooner; but then that was kind of why she liked having Lucifer as a partner; he was able to see things that she might have initially looked over.

A self-satisfied smile spread across Lucifer’s face. “You’re welcome, Detective.”

“Why didn’t you think of it earlier?” she smiled, playing with him.

Lucifer gaped at her for a moment and then with a small glare returned to his magazine.

He would have been content sitting there all day, regardless of the number of times Chloe had none too subtly “ _accidentally_ ” jabbed him in the lower back and backside with pens, a stapler and the mugshot books in an attempt to make him move, but, as Chloe placed her call to the forensic technicians to have someone pull the traffic cams surrounding both nightclubs, the elevator doors pinged open across the precinct and Charlotte casually strolled in.

Lucifer immediately recognised her as she hadn’t hidden herself behind a host, instead presenting herself for all the world to see. She was exactly the same as Lucifer remembered her from when he’d locked her up in Hell millennia ago. Charlotte’s long brown hair hung in loose curls half way down her back and her dark eyes scanned the room until she spotted Lucifer, upon which she quirked an exquisitely shaped eyebrow at him as if daring him to announce to the room of police that the Devil’s mother, and probably the most dangerous woman in the entire world, had just entered the building.

“Uh, Detective,” Lucifer said calmly as he placed his magazine on the desk and got to his feet, his gaze never leaving the woman standing by the elevators. “I’m just going to see a man about a dog.”

Still focused on her phone call, but still pleased to have her desk back, Chloe waved him away without noticing that Lucifer was following the woman into one of the storage rooms and closing the blinds rather than turning left towards the bathrooms. If she had, she probably would have noticed the fear marring his usually composed features.

Dan Espinoza, however, did notice that Lucifer had gone off with some mysterious woman into the storage room and barely waited for Chloe to be off the phone before he approached her desk and took up the spot that Lucifer had just vacated. Chloe liked Dan being there even less than she’d liked Lucifer taking up her desk.

“What is _he_ doing here, Chloe?” Dan hissed. “Isn’t it a conflict of interest for him to be helping on this case?”

The argument had worked with Chloe before when Rose Davis and Corazon had been murdered in Lucifer’s name by Malcolm and Dan was hopeful that it would work this time too. He would never admit it out loud but he hated the enigmatic nightclub owner working so closely with his wife, separated as they were.

“Lucifer is helping me with the case, Dan,” Chloe sighed. She’d lost count of the number of conversations, which quickly turned into arguments, she’d had with Dan about this very subject.

“He’s spent the last five hours sitting on your desk reading goddamn titty magazines,” Dan ground out. “That’s not what I would call _helping_ you with the case.”

“They’re not _titty_ magazines,” Chloe said holding up the Cleo magazine Lucifer had left on her desk when he’d departed but with a scantily clad Scarlett Johansson gracing the cover didn’t exactly support what she’d said.

The look Dan gave her told her what he thought of her excuses for her partner, and none of it was charitable.

“He’s my civilian consultant _and_ currently under police protection, Dan,” Chloe said, an edge of annoyance entering her voice. “That means we work together to solve cases but, for the time being, it also means that he has to be watched by the police at all times so that his murder isn’t added to the list.”

“And I bet he’s loving that,” Dan snapped back. “Why does his police protection have to be _you_?”

And there was the crux of it, Dan was jealous.

“I can’t believe that you’re jealous of Lucifer, Dan,” Chloe said incredulously. “How many times do I have to tell you that there is _nothing_ going on between us?”

“Why didn’t you answer my question?” Dan countered. “Besides, how would you like it if I started working with a good looking partner, or something?”

Chloe couldn’t help the small smile that spread across her face at the thought of what Lucifer would say and do in response to Dan saying he’s “good looking”; it’d probably be something lewd to make Dan uncomfortable. She quickly straightened her face so that Dan wouldn’t ask what she’d been thinking about. “As long as your relationship with her – or _him_ – was professional, just as mine and Lucifer’s working relationship is, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.”

Dan glared at her but didn’t respond.

Chloe had long ago stopped caring about what Dan got up to outside of work. In the early days of their split he had tried to make her jealous by having overly loud conversations about his latest date with a “leggy blonde” with his friends in the precinct but when that didn’t work he’d gone back to showing her, and Trixie, just how much more he cared about his work than them. Even though he’d improved somewhat over the last several months, being a more doting father to Trixie and showing Chloe that he still cared about her, after Palmetto and what he’d done so Malcolm wouldn’t take him down with him, Chloe wasn’t sure she would ever truly _love_ him again. She cared about him, yes, she couldn’t not care about him when he was the father of their daughter, but as far as she was concerned there would never again be an intimate relationship between them.

“Now, was there something you actually wanted or can I get back to work?”

Dan opened his mouth as if to finally come back with a witty repartee but seemed to think better of it at the last moment. “Yeah, I just got a call from Trixie’s school, she got into fight with a bully and the principal wants to talk to one of us, again.”

“And why can’t you go?” Chloe knew that Dan was dumping this responsibility on her even though he’d been the one to receive the call from the school.

“I’ve got a case I’m working on!”

“Oh, and I’m just sitting here having a tea party,” she snapped. They were starting to draw a few looks from the detectives whose desks neighboured Chloe’s but she was beyond caring, her case was no less important than his.

“I was just heading out to question a potential witness when I got the call.” Dan jangled his keys at her as if it proved his point.

Chloe sighed and decided she’d had enough of the argument. “Fine, I’ll go and help _our_ daughter, just like I always do.”

Dan ignored the jibe. “Don’t forget your police protectee,” he sneered. “You wouldn’t want any harm to come to him if he were to be left behind in a room full of cops. Although he has been alone in the storage room with some woman for quite a while, you might want to check that she hasn’t done us and the Nightclub Killer a favour and killed him.”

Before Chloe could get another word in Dan stalked off but his words left Chloe wondering what he was talking about and found herself heading towards the storage room. Lucifer had said that he’d been going to the bathroom but, even if that was the case and he wasn’t now in the storage room with some woman, he’d been gone a long time. Chloe thought it a good idea to go and check on Lucifer, and just hoped that he wasn’t doing anything untoward in the storage room.

In the storage room Lucifer loomed over his mother, it wasn’t overly difficult as she was only five foot one to his six foot three and barely reached his chest, but it still didn’t fill him with any confidence. “What are you doing here?” he growled. He’d lost count of the number of times he’d asked her this very question after the last week. 

She pouted and played with the buttons on his black Armani shirt. “I just wanted to see where my baby boy works.”

Lucifer grabbed her hands to still them and stop her from unbuttoning any more of his shirt. “I won’t ask again, Charlotte.”

“The same thing I’ve wanted the entire time, Samael,” she growled. “I want you to go back to Hell.”

Lucifer studied Charlotte’s face; surely there had to be something more she was wanting, some trick she was playing. “Why do you want me to return to Hell so badly?”

“You’re the Lord of Hell.”

Lucifer let his eyes glow red. “Yes, I am and you’ll do well to remember that.”

Charlotte ignored Lucifer’s underlying threat. “Go back to Hell, Samael, I’m growing tired of asking nicely.”

“And if I don’t?”

“It would be a shame if anything were to happen to your little pet detective, wouldn’t it?” Charlotte said quietly. “Or her spawn. Such an innocent little child, I would hate if something were to happen to her.”

“You stay away from Chloe and Beatrice,” Lucifer growled and his features flashed to remind his mother what he hid behind his human façade.

Charlotte smiled widely, finally eliciting the response from Lucifer she’d been hoping for; wanting to show him that no matter how much he liked to play cop or nightclub owner he was still the Devil. “There he is, I knew he was there all along,” she whispered and looked at him with awe. “You belong in Hell, Samael, not here among these _pathetic_ mortals. Your dominion still waits eagerly for you to retake your throne.”

What Charlotte didn’t understand, and probably would never understand, was that Lucifer didn’t want his throne. He’d _never_ wanted it. It was no _gift_ and no matter how many of his brothers, or Dr Linda, tried to tell him that his Father had gifted it to him because he was God’s favourite son he would never believe it. All he had ever wanted was free will and he had been punished for it, he was not going to rule over the place that he had been sent to so that he could not return to Heaven.

“I’m _never_ going back to Hell,” Lucifer said with finality.

With Lucifer’s words Charlotte’s whole demeanour changed and an electric charge filled the room. “You _will_ go back to Hell, Samael. You’re weak here and like your little nightclub owning friends it will be all too easy to get to you and send you back to Hell if you won’t go on your own.”

Lucifer was slightly taken aback. “ _You’re_ behind these murders? Those men were innocent, they’d done nothing wrong. You _killed_ them to threaten me to go back to Hell?”

Before Charlotte could answer there was a sharp knock on the storage room door and Chloe’s face peered around it as she opened it.

In the centre of the small room, Lucifer and a beautiful woman stood intimately close to one another with Lucifer holding the woman’s hands against his chest. Adding to the sight was half of the buttons on his shirt undone showing his chest down to his navel, it was little wonder that he’d closed the blinds. The pair looked surprised at the sudden intrusion and Chloe’s own mouth formed a little “o” in surprise and embarrassment as she saw them standing there. “I’m sorry,” she muttered and quickly shut the door on the scene.

With a glare, Lucifer immediately released his hold on his mother’s hands and went after Chloe. He had to explain that it wasn’t what she thought it was, somehow. “Chloe, wait!”

Charlotte let out a small growl as she watched Lucifer run after the detective. What was it about this woman that had the Devil himself by the short and curlies? She watched them for a moment having a quiet but heated conversation, both of them flicking glances back her way as she stood in the doorway of the storage room. It was past time for Lucifer to return to Hell, this little demonstration was proof that he was becoming all too human the longer he spent on this plane.

She sauntered across the precinct over to where her son and his pet detective stood arguing by her desk and ran the lightest of touches across his back as she moved past him. “I’ll be seeing you soon, Samael,” Charlotte purred, her eyes on Chloe as she spoke.

Chloe’s and Lucifer’s conversation had halted when his mysterious woman had sashayed over. Despite being that slight bit taller than Lucifer’s mysterious woman, Chloe can’t help but feel that little bit intimidated by the woman’s stare. And why did she just call Lucifer “ _Samael_ ”? Was it a pet name or a nickname? The way she looked at him and touched him was odd for someone he claimed was a relative, not that he had mentioned how, exactly, they were related, but, then again, maybe things were different in England; Chloe had never been so couldn’t say for sure that families and relatives over there weren’t freakishly close.

They both watched in silence as the woman swayed her hips and caught the eye of every detective and uniformed officer, male and female alike, as she moved toward the elevator. As the elevator doors opened, the precinct finally returned to a semblance of normalcy but even then there were a few people who quietly spoke about what Chloe must have walked in on in the storage room.

Chloe arched an eyebrow at Lucifer.

“Nothing happened, Detective,” he said for the third time.

“For some reason, I have trouble believing that, Lucifer,” she replied as she grabbed her keys. It was past time that she went to Trixie’s school. “Anyway, I don’t want to hear your excuses but the next time you feel the need to schedule a booty call, could you maybe plan it away from the department and, better yet, when I’m not around to accidentally walk in on you.”

She couldn’t believe that she’d defended him to Dan. Chloe had thought that maybe he was stopping his playboy ways because of what they had together. Not that anything was _happening_ between them and she didn’t even know how to define their relationship but it had long ago gone beyond just a working partnership. Still, Chloe found that it hurt her pride a little bit that Lucifer would be in the arms of another woman when he was supposed to be helping her solve a case.

For once Lucifer didn’t come back with a smart remark. He wanted to explain that the woman she’d seen him with was his mother, an incredibly dangerous woman who had threatened them both as well as her daughter and whom he was now sure was somehow involved in Jared Wright’s and Harrison Archer’s murders, but he didn’t know where to start or whether Chloe would believe him anyway. He had lost count of the number of times had he told her that he was the Devil and she would always just smile at him in that way that surely meant she thought he was slightly insane. For now it would just be better to have Chloe think he was a playboy than try and explain he was just trying to keep her safe and why. Lucifer wasn’t exactly sure he completely understood the _why_ himself.

Chloe sighed heavily. “I need to go to Trixie’s school, she’s been another fight. Are you coming?”

She half expected Lucifer to put up some protest but he just nodded mutely and gestured for her to lead the way. Maybe she should have listened to his explanation…

*******

The car ride was silent as Chloe drove toward Trixie’s school. It had surpassed a natural silence about sixty seconds into the ride down to the carpark in the elevator and was now completely awkward. Chloe was beginning to miss Lucifer’s car ride banter, no matter how inappropriate it occasionally became, but it had become a rarity since he’d been shot by Malcolm. Recently he’d become quieter and had stopped sharing his every thought with her and she was certain now that there was something that Lucifer wasn’t telling her but she didn’t know how to broach the subject. She decided to go with the question that was nagging her the most.

“Why did that woman, your _relative_ or whoever she was, call you ‘Samael’?”

From the corner of her eye she saw Lucifer tense slightly. “Don’t call me that, please,” he said wearily.

She stole a glance at him. “Why? If you don’t want to be called…” Chloe was going to use the name again but seeing how tense Lucifer was decided against it. “… _that_ , why did she call you it?”

Lucifer licked his lips as if in preparation of answering but then closed his mouth in a hard line. Chloe was about to ask again but Lucifer released a sigh. “It was the name my Father gave me.”

“But I thought…” Chloe began but she didn’t know how to end her question. She recalled how he’d told her how he’d had Maze cut off his “wings” when she’d seen his scars and he’d said something about it being because of his father but she’d been so caught up in the sight of the scars that she’d not really thought about what he’d said or why he would injure himself because of his father. Sure, he’d told her that his father was God a number of times but she thought that he was being rhetorical, like how every father is a god in their son’s eyes, or it was his little quirky delusions again but if his father had once called him _Samael_ then why did he now go by _Lucifer_?

“It’s a long story, Detective.” Lucifer sounded tired and defeated. “Not one for right now, I think.”

“Okay,” she said quietly, much as she’d done when she’d tried to touch his scars.

They lapsed into another silence, both of them ruminating on Chloe’s question. All of it would have been so much simpler if Chloe had just believed Lucifer the first time he’d told her that he was the Devil.

“Oh, by the way, Detective…” Lucifer said suddenly. “Did that pickup truck driver ever give a reason as to why he ploughed his car into yours?”

Chloe was surprised by the question and Lucifer’s sudden renewed interest in their car accident, she’d all but stopped thinking about it herself because of the high profile nature of the nightclub owner murders. She still had some questions about how Lucifer seemed to have healed completely in a matter of days from a serious wound that should have left him incapacitated for weeks.

“He said he must have blacked out or fallen asleep at the wheel. He also mentioned that he didn’t even remember getting into his car that night,” she replied. Dan had made it his personal mission to discover why the driver had crashed his car headlong into hers and had passed along the information while she was still in the hospital herself. “The hospital cleared him of drink-driving, so I suppose it was just an accident. Why the sudden interest in the pickup driver?”

Lucifer was quiet as he considered what Chloe had told him as she pulled the car up out the front of Trixie’s school. He already knew that his mother had possessed the driver but his lack of recollection of getting into his car in the first place lent Lucifer to believe that Charlotte had set out from the get go to kill either him or Chloe or the both of them. It wasn’t a settling thought.

“Lucifer?”

“Oh, look, we’re here,” he said evading the question and jumped out of the car.

“You’re strange, Lucifer,” Chloe called after him.

They’d barely taken two steps into the school hallway before Trixie had shrieked Lucifer’s name and greeted him in her customary way of wrapping her hands around his middle in a tight hug.

“Uh… yes, hello, child.” Lucifer patted her lightly on the head, awarding himself a glare from Chloe for treating her daughter like a dog. “What trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?”

Trixie sighed, she’d already had to explain this to three different teachers and the principal; she’d only been doing what her mum, dad and Lucifer had told her to do and stood up to the bully. “Amy Fowler tried to steal my lunch money and, so, I did as Lucifer suggested and told her that Maze would send her to the fiery pits of Hell and torture her for all eternity for being a bully and then she started to cry.”

Chloe covered her laugh with a cough while Lucifer grinned widely; maybe there was something to be said about Chloe’s spawn after all.

“You really shouldn’t have threatened to send her to Hell,” Chloe admonished but her heart just wasn’t in it; she was starting to get sick of having to come down to the school and defend her daughter’s actions when they couldn’t even protect her from the bullies. “But, good job standing up to the bullies, Trixie-babe.”

The child beamed with pride and hung off Lucifer like he was a maypole.

“Lucifer, could you watch her while I talk to the principal?”

“I’m not a babysitter!” he grumbled.

“It’s your fault she’s in this mess,” Chloe hissed 

Resigned to his fate as babysitter, Lucifer dropped himself down onto the bench outside the principal’s office and Trixie sat beside him, a little too close for his liking. He loathed children and couldn’t understand why anyone in their right mind would want to have one, let alone work with the little miscreants on a daily basis

A silence settled between Lucifer and Trixie. He’d not been allowed alone with the child ever since she’d apparently used some of his advice to just take whatever it was you happened to want and had eaten a slice of her birthday cake when she wasn’t supposed to. This new rule was perfectly fine with him, he had no idea what he was supposed say to the child and, according to Chloe, treating her like an untrained animal was frowned upon in most circles.

“So…” Trixie said, drawing the vowel out into multiple syllables. 

Lucifer was fine with the silence between them and hoped that, like most creatures he didn’t understand, she would go away in time. 

Trixie, however, enjoyed her time spent with the nightclub owner and wasn’t going to let him off that easily. “In science class today, we built model volcanos and made them erupt!”

“Fascinating,” Lucifer said dryly.

Ignoring Lucifer’s lacklustre response, Trixie continued unfazed. “And Bobby Potter added too much vinegar into his volcano and it exploded everywhere! Miss Moore was covered in red goo for the rest of the day!”

“Yes, the chemical reaction between vinegar and baking powder is _amazing_ ,” Lucifer muttered, inspecting his nails for imaginary dirt.

“And then, in history we were learning about the American Revolution and my teacher was telling us about this goat that led the Welsh army at the end of… some battle, I can’t remember which one my teacher said.”

“Go on,” Lucifer said earnestly, surprised that he was finding something Chloe’s spawn had to say remotely interesting. “Tell me more about this goat.”

Trixie grinned widely, knowing she had Lucifer hook, line and sinker. “Well,” she began. “According to my teacher, there was this wild goat and it just wandered into the middle of the field during the battle and no one knew what to do with it but the Welsh army were able to grab him and they named him Billy.”

“As all good goats are called,” Lucifer interjected.

The grin on Trixie’s face grew wider. “Yup! And this Billy goat apparently saved some soldiers from getting shot by head butting them to the ground even though he was hurt himself.”

“But what happened to the goat after the battle?”

Trixie didn’t get to respond as it was at that moment that Chloe emerged from the principal’s office looking grim and pale faced. Beside Lucifer, Trixie shrunk up and tried her best to hide behind his tall frame, afraid that her mum hadn’t been able to get her out of trouble with the principal. However, it was in Lucifer’s direction that she focused her attention.

“We have to go,” she said quietly, mindful of the dozens of kids milling about. “There’s been another nightclub murder.”

Lucifer immediately stood and wondered which of his friends his mother had gone after this time, and in the middle of the day, no less. “Where?”

Chloe kept a steady gaze with Lucifer. “It’s at Lux.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End note #2!
> 
> I'M SORRY THIS ENDED ON ANOTHER CLIFF HANGER!!!! Really, I am. Initially it wasn't going to end on such a cliff hanger but I split Chapter 5 into two chapters because it was just getting too long, so I hope you can understand.
> 
> The goat conversation between Lucifer and Trixie is kind of a shout out to my uber fluffy one-shot story "The Goat Thing", it's not at all related to this story but if you're interested you can give that a read too.
> 
> The history information that Trixie imparts on the Devil is real but I kind of blended the exploits of a number of different "Billy" goats together to make it a little bit more interesting. You can read a bit more about goats in war here: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/military-goats/ 
> 
>  
> 
> Just a little wonder I had, do people find the "Previously on the Devil Won't Go" part at the start of each chapter helpful? I know when I'm reading fanfiction and there's some time between new chapters that I tend to forget what each story I'm reading is about and what's happened previously. I'm happy to keep doing them, and will, but sometimes I struggle to write them and I just want to be sure that they're providing worthwhile information to help remind people what's happened previously or if there needs to be more detail. Let me know.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is Chapter 6 of _Where the Devil Don't Go_!
> 
> The chapters are pretty much weekly now, posted on a Sunday night (Australian Eastern Standard time) and I'm going to try to that schedule until the end of this story but I resume university this week which means I will have less time for writing and the head start I had on future chapters has unfortunately been whittled away down to only the one chapter due to personal illness. That being said, there may be times in the future that it might take a little more than a week for a new chapter to come out. I want to maintain the quality of my writing, something I'm worried has been slipping the last chapter or two since I've not been able to dedicate as much time to writing in the last couple of weeks, but this may mean that between uni course work and maintaining some semblance of a life that I may not have the time to do as much writing and so chapters will be late. I'm really very sorry about this but I hope you can understand. I do promise that I am going to finish this story and do it, and you the readers, the justice and attention deserved but it might take me longer than I had initially planned.
> 
> I can never say this enough, _thank you so very much_ for taking the time out of your day to read my story and an extra thanks to those who have left a comment or kudos. Means a lot to me.

_Previously on Lucifer: “Where the Devil Don’t Go” – In the investigation of the murders of nightclub owners Jared Wright and Harrison Archer, Lucifer and Chloe finally have a solid lead with a balding, homeless-looking man appearing on CCTV outside one of the nightclubs before the murders but so far they have been unable to determine his identity. Charlotte again threatened Lucifer to return to Hell lest something similar to that of Wright and Archer happen to him, Chloe or Trixie lending Lucifer to believe that his mother has something to do with his friends’ murders. After a call whilst attending Trixie’s school, Lucifer and Chloe are on their way over to Lux where someone had been murdered._

#### Chapter 6

A steady, depressing, light rain had settled over the city as Lucifer and Chloe had rushed over to Lux with lights and sirens sounding. The dispatcher hadn’t been able to provide a lot of details over the phone about who it was that had been found murdered, leaving the partners both worried that the victim could possibly be Maze. In her true form, Lucifer knew that Charlotte would be an even match for Maze and wouldn’t object to using dirty tactics to ensure she would win. After the threats she had made to him, Lucifer wasn’t surprised that his mother had gone after someone close to him and he found himself praying to his Father for only the second time in his existence that Maze was alive and she’d somehow managed to overpower Charlotte.

The scene was in utter chaos as Chloe slammed on the breaks out the front of Lux. The uniformed officers were still running around trying to establish a police cordon and moving along the onlookers whilst the forensic techs were still jumping in and out of their vans, collecting what they would need to process the scene and leaving it on the damp sidewalk. It was all hands on deck now that the case was officially being called the work of a serial killer. From the quiet inside Chloe’s patrol car the whole scene was looked like a macabre pantomime.

Chloe didn’t even have the time to ask Lucifer to wait for her as he jumped out of the vehicle and was striding toward the police cordon. Everyone in the department knew Lucifer by sight and the tape that had already been strung was lifted without need of Chloe or having to charm someone to let him through; though from the ferocious look on his face no one probably would have tried to stop him anyway.

With long strides Lucifer entered his nightclub, throwing the doors open with a bang. His entrance hushed the detectives standing beside the white sheet covering the body and they all turned to watch him descend the stairs onto the main dance floor. Lucifer could see a few of his bar staff corralled into a corner on the other side of the large space accompanied by a few detectives but he couldn’t see Maze standing with them. His heart beat loudly in his chest, blocking all sound from his ears, as his attention focused on the white sheet in front of his bar. A large, red stain had already seeped through the pristine fabric.

Lucifer had to take a steadying breath as he slowly approached the bar; he had to keep his rage under control lest he let his nastier side show itself. He noted that Detective Douche was one of the detectives gathered beside the white sheet and was watching him carefully. With a small nod, Lucifer steeled himself as one of the detectives whose name he’d not bothered to recall stooped and grabbed a handful of the sheet. Lucifer was already formulating the plan inside his mind, he was going to find his mother and send her back to Hell the most painful way he could find. He was going to put her back in the little hole in which she belonged.

As the sheet was moved aside, exposing the body, Lucifer released the breath he’d not realised he’d been holding. It wasn’t Maze but that fact hardly improved the situation; one of his employees had still been murdered. Lucifer ran his hands through his hair to keep himself from lashing out at whomever was nearest, he’d save it for Charlotte.

“His name is Rob Bradley,” Lucifer said, his voice flat. “He’s one of my bartenders, he’s worked here since I opened Lux.”

Chloe sidled up next to Lucifer and watched him for a few moments. His face was expressionless but when she touched his arm to show her support he moved away and crossed his arms across his chest. Chloe didn’t take his actions personally, someone he knew had just been brutally murdered and he was probably in shock, she would likely have been the same given the circumstances.

Flicking the switch in her brain to go from concerned friend Chloe to Detective Decker, Chloe turned her attention to the body and had to do a double take as she noted the uncanny likeness between Lucifer and his murdered employee. They could have been brothers. Their hair was the same dark shade, they both had the meticulously manicured designer stubble and they were identical physically. The only differences Chloe could note between Lucifer and Rob Bradley was that Lucifer had a sharp nose whilst Rob’s was that little bit pudgy and wonky from a long ago break. The quality of their clothes was also an indicator of how the men differed but that was something she had only started noticing when Lucifer had become her partner. Lucifer wore Prada and Armani, suits that cost thousands of dollars, whilst the shirt and pressed pants that Rob Bradley wore looked as though they wouldn’t have cost their owner more than a hundred dollars. If it had been the nightclub owner killer who had committed this crime, it wasn’t overly surprising that he would have gotten the two men confused.

Kneeling beside Rob Bradley’s body, she noted that he had defensive wounds on his hands and up his arms. _Good on you for fighting back_ , she thought to herself. Neither Jared Wright nor Harrison Archer had been able to fight back against their murderer so Chloe hoped that there might be some DNA from the killer underneath Rob Bradley’s fingernails. Maybe then they would finally have a solid lead to go after before he killed anyone else.

One of the other detectives was attempting to ask Lucifer questions and Chloe noticed that Lucifer’s voice was getting louder and he’d lost some of his composure. 

“Mr Morningstar, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down,” Detective Leonard Cooper said sheepishly. He was severely dwarfed by the nightclub owner and seemed to find the height difference intimidating.

“Calm down? You want me to calm down? How can you ask me if I had any reason to kill Rob and then not expect me to call you a troglodytic homunculus? I _never_ would have hurt Rob, I would _never_ hurt anyone. Why do you all so easily believe that I would be capable of hurting someone?”

Chloe put herself between Lucifer and Detective Cooper. She didn’t fully understand why Lucifer was reacting like that to the question but she suspected it was for a similar reason to the one when he’d reacted in a similar fashion during the Satanist murders. From that case, and when she’d initially told him that what she thought didn’t matter when she’d found Reverend Jacobs dead only feet from where Rob Bradley lay now, Chloe had learnt that Lucifer struggles with the belief that people assume that he is a bad person and capable of bringing harm to people. She supposed that it possibly had something to do with his belief that he is the Devil but she still didn’t completely understand why Lucifer had taken up such a persona when he’d admitted himself that he’d been vilified because of it.

“No one here believes that you had anything to do with Rob’s murder, Lucifer,” Chloe said earnestly. “It’s just a question we have to ask to cover all our bases, you know that.”

Lucifer nodded sagely. It wasn’t Detective Troglodyte he was particularly angry with, but himself. He should have been here to protect his employees after the threats Charlotte had made but he had been too busy with his own selfish desire of being near Chloe. He all too frequently discounted his reasons for spending so much time with the Detective as wanting to discover why he had no effect on her and ensure that she was kept safe, and that was true, but he also found himself just wanting to spend time with her. Maybe his mother was right and he was becoming too attached with Chloe; she would probably be safer if he wasn’t around.

So consumed by his thoughts, Lucifer hadn’t noticed that Dan had come over and accosted Chloe. “He can’t work on this case anymore, Chloe,” he overheard Detective Douche saying. “He’s too close to it now and he’s…”

Dan faltered when he noticed Lucifer looming up behind him.

“And what, Daniel? By all means, continue. Don’t let me stop you from finishing what you were going to say.”

Dan turned, crossing him arms and did his best to show Lucifer that he wasn’t going to be intimidated by him but it was difficult when the other man was still more than three inches taller than him. “I was going to say that you’re dangerous.”

“Really?” Lucifer practically growled, causing Dan to step back slightly.

“You may not be involved personally in these murders, but someone is _clearly_ out to get you, probably because you don’t care who you piss off, and now three people associated with you are dead. Who’s to say that it won’t be Chloe next? Or Trixie, or even your demented bar manager, Maze? But all you seem to care about is your own damn self and making Chloe’s job harder by following her around like a lost bloody dog.”

With Lucifer looking very much like he was about to rip Dan’s arms and legs off, Chloe thought it a good time to stand between the two men in her life. Seriously, what was it with the men in her life?

“Enough! Why don’t you just whip them out and measure so we can get on with solving this case?”

Lucifer smirked darkly. “We needn’t do that, Detective. You’ve already seen the both of us naked, you can be the judge of who’s up to measure.”

“You’ve seen him naked?!” Dan said incredulously.

“Not helping, Lucifer,” Chloe muttered as she pushed him away from her ex-husband. She wasn’t going to tell Dan that she’d seen Lucifer naked _twice_ already, she shuddered to think what he would make of that.

Dan got a dark look on his face which morphed into a smile, Chloe had known him long enough to know he was about to make trouble. “Maybe our killer has seen the debauchery that goes on in this club of yours and taken it upon himself to help the world and rid us of the low lives that run such establishments,” Dan quipped. “Or, maybe he’s the partner of one of the numerous women you’ve slept with and then tossed aside. I could certainly see why he’d be coming after you, if that’s the case. You treat women like they’re pieces of meat for your own pleasure and then you toss them aside without a second thought. Yeah, you probably don’t have anything to do with these men being killed, but the fact that they’re all connected to you in some way makes you complicit.”

Lucifer advanced on Dan, using his height to tower over him but didn’t say a word.

Dan idiotically took it as a cue to keep going. “You’re a sanctimonious ass, Lucifer, and you hide behind this insane playboy demeanour thinking that everybody loves you but in reality everyone is really just that little bit afraid of you; and for good reason, in my mind.”

“There it is again, Daniel,” Lucifer said, his voice low. “The insinuation that I am just intrinsically evil. I have never done anything to harm anyone and I never would but you all just choose to focus on the malicious lies sprouted about me for millennia. Maybe I should just be what everyone expects me to be. Would that satisfy you? Maybe I could condemn a few innocent souls to Hell and set about torturing them for a while, that could be fun. And as for everyone else, I’ll just tempt them into committing acts they would otherwise find repulsive; what’s a few salacious actions between friends, hmm?”

Lucifer hadn’t noticed that he’d backed Dan into the bar and was doing his best not to cower beneath Lucifer’s gaze. Realising what he was doing, he backed away and fisted his hands at his sides. He was practically vibrating with rage.

No one ever wanted to see or take him for the man he was, no matter how hard tried or what he did. Chloe, Dan, Dr Linda, none of them actively believed him when he told them he was the Devil, but deep down they all knew that there was something ethereal, otherworldly, about him, even if they couldn’t put their finger on it, and it was enough to make them wary of him. Sometimes Lucifer wondered if it wouldn’t be easier if he just let his nastier side show, even for a second; they all wanted to believe that he was evil, why not show them the truth of it?

Chloe grabbed Lucifer’s arm to stop his pacing and pulled him around to face him. As he cast his gaze down on her Chloe thought she saw a slight red tinge fade from his eyes but put it down to a trick of the lights. With only a look she was able to convey more to him than words ever could. _You’re upset, it’s okay, and I’m here for you. Dan is just being his usual dick self, don’t let him get to you_.

Lucifer allowed himself a small smile. When had he allowed himself to be kowtowed by such a small woman? 

“Lucifer, do me a favour and go up to your apartment, please? I’ll come and see you shortly.”

Lucifer considered contending the issue, he wanted to be nearby lest Charlotte return, but he nodded curtly and did as he was bid. It would probably be best if he calmed down and it would also be a good opportunity to discuss the new developments with Amenadiel and find where Maze had gone off to. He just hoped that no harm had come to her.

Dan and Chloe watched silently as the nightclub owner trudged his way up the stairs and thumbed the button to call down his private elevator. As the doors pinged open, Lucifer cast one last glance over the scene before his eyes settled on Chloe and let it linger there for a moment before stepping into the elevator.

“When did you see him naked?” Dan asked as the elevator doors closed behind Lucifer.

“Shut up, Dan,” Chloe sighed, her attention returning to the case at hand.

*******

Lucifer poured himself three fingers of his favourite scotch and downed half of it in one go. He shouldn’t have let Dan rile him up like that but Detective Douche had gotten the better of him. He was stressed and worried about his mothers’ intentions. All these damned emotions, no matter the work he did with Dr Linda, they still seemed to get the better of him when it was most inconvenient. He would very much like it if these emotions would just go back wherever they came from, thank you very much.

Downing the remainder of his glass before pouring another three fingers, Lucifer took the bottle with him to his leather couch; he planned to have drunk enough that he could actually tolerate a conversation with Amenadiel. Amenadiel had been off trying to find where Charlotte was hiding herself ever since she’d rammed the Detective’s car off the road but so far he’d come up short. There were times when he’d come close to tracking her down and she’d slip through his fingers just as he got there. In the week since the car accident there had been a number of reports about strange occurrences around the downtown LA area but it was impossible to determine if Charlotte had anything to do with any of them.

Considering he’d finished nearly half of his bottle, Lucifer decided it was now or never to call upon his brother. “Amenadiel,” he shouted into the empty room. “Get your feathered hole down here.”

Seconds later and with a rustle of his brother’s wings, Amenadiel let himself into Lucifer’s apartment from the balcony. “Would it kill you to ask me here nicely, Luci?” 

Lucifer took another long swig of his scotch. “It just might. How’s your search for mother dearest going?”

Amenadiel watched his brother for a few moments, gauging his mood; there was something decidedly off with the Lord of Hell. “Not well, I’m afraid,” he started carefully, perching on the arm of the couch opposite Lucifer. “Whenever I get close to her she disappears again. Why, has she come to see you again?”

“Mm, she did, while I was at the precinct. We had a nice little chat.” Amenadiel was tempted to ask what they had discussed but knew better; Lucifer would share that information willingly if he was ever going to. “And the body of one of my employees in the middle of my club also has her name written all over it.”

“You think she might have something to do with these murders?”

Lucifer took another large mouthful of his scotch. “You think it’s just a coincidence that she escapes Hell and then some of my associates start getting murdered?”

Amenadiel couldn’t contend with his brother’s logic; sometimes there was no such thing as a coincidence. “Why, though?”

“Might be because she wants me to return to Hell.”

The shock and surprise immediately registered on Amenadiel’s face, Lucifer hadn’t yet dropped that bombshell, wary of what his brother would make of it. It wasn’t all that long ago that Amenadiel had been trying to get Lucifer back to Hell himself and it wouldn’t have surprised Lucifer in the least if Amenadiel would jump at the chance to finally stop watching the Gates of Hell and send his brother back to his throne.

“She wants you to return to Hell?” Amenadiel repeated, just to ensure he’d heard correctly.

Lucifer swirled the scotch in his glass, watching the brown liquid move over the ice cubes. “Mmhmm.”

“Then you should go.”

Lucifer’s hand tightened around his glass. “And what good would that serve, Amenadiel?” he kept his voice even but he could feel his anger rising.

Amenadiel sensed his brother’s building fury and knew to tread carefully; it had taken him a long while to heal from the last fight he’d had with Lucifer and didn’t want a repeat performance if he could help it. “If you return to Hell, she will likely follow.”

Lucifer was silent for a few moments. “And if she doesn’t? What then, Brother?” Lucifer’s voice was scarily calm. “By the grace of _Dad_ I hope that I’m let out of Hell again? I get stuck there and leave her to terrorise everyone?”

“Charlotte wants you back in Hell, Lucifer, and maybe that’s her sole reason for escaping.”

Lucifer emptied the last of his scotch into his tumbler and took a long pull from it before answering. “I do find it interesting, Amenadiel, that Charlotte has come and seen me several times in the last week, demanding me to return to Hell, but you’ve not heard a word from her or even been able to get close to her. I’m hardly her favourite son after I locked her in a tiny hole for millennia, so why is she avoiding _you_ , Brother?”

“You think I’m helping her?” Amenadiel asked incredulously. “What good does it serve me to _help_ her?”

Lucifer shrugged noncommittally. “After you brought Malcolm Graham back from Hell and used Dr Linda _and_ Maze-”

“We both used Maze,” Amenadiel interjected darkly.

“-against me, it wouldn’t really surprise me if you were working together to get be back to Hell. You’ve never been surreptitious about wanting me back in Hell, Amenadiel, and you have made it abundantly clear that you disapprove of our Father granting me to stay on Earth because it’s left you to patrol the Gates of Hell-”

“If you’d never left none of this would have happened! Mum would still be in Hell and you would be where you belong.”

Lucifer laughed harshly. “Because I was the one to bring a dangerous lunatic back from the dead.”

“I wouldn’t have needed to do that if you had done as you were asked,” Amenadiel ground out.

“You continue to act as though your actions were justified, Brother. Two people were murdered by Malcolm because you brought him back and that’s on you.”

“And that is something I am going to have to live with for the rest of time but, Luci, your place is in Hell; it’s where you belong.”

The glass in Lucifer’s hand shattered as he squeezed it too hard. The remnants of his favourite scotch dripped from his fingers but thankfully his blood wasn’t added to the mix, Chloe was obviously far enough way that her presence didn’t have an impact on his mortality. “I don’t _belong_ in Hell, Amenadiel. I know that you and Father and our brothers believe that I _deserve_ to be in Hell but all I ever wanted was freewill and for that I lost everything I’d ever known and loved. I _never_ asked for any of this.”

Amenadiel just nodded slowly. He had nothing that he could say. He had not been privy to his brother’s Fall but afterwards it was all that anyone spoke about for centuries; angels were such gossip mongers. He had never thought that Lucifer deserved to be in Hell, though he knew some of his brothers were of that very opinion, but God surely would not have bestowed such a job upon Lucifer if he could not handle it. What didn’t matter was whether Lucifer wanted the throne, it was his and nothing was ever going to change that.

Lucifer sighed heavily. “Just leave, Amenadiel, I’m done talking to you.”

“Okay, Lucifer. I’ll continue my search for Charlotte and keep you informed.”

“You do that.” 

Back over at his bar, Lucifer grabbed another glass and poured himself a large drink. He sensed Amenadiel lingering behind him but wasn’t interested in anything he had to say. He heard his brother’s wings snap open as he moved toward the balcony but there was one more thing he needed to know before Amenadiel left.

“By the way,” Lucifer called. “Where’s Maze?”

Amenadiel faltered for a moment before answering over his shoulder. “She’s been with me, this entire time.”

Lucifer snorted a laugh but he wasn’t overly surprised. He didn’t understand why Maze was so infatuated with Amenadiel but it wasn’t his place to tell her that she couldn’t spend time with his brother. While she still technically served him, she was her own demon and could do what she pleased.

With a flap of his wings, Amenadiel launched himself off of Lucifer’s balcony and was gone into the early evening darkness.

Scotch in hand, Lucifer dropped himself heavily onto the couch. He was exhausted and let his eyes close and dropped his head onto the back of his couch. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do and all of his efforts just seemed to be cultivating in more of his associates being murdered.

Lucifer sighed and took a long swig from his glass. Over the rim he noticed a dark figure standing in the doorway leading to his balcony. “Go away, Amenadiel,” he grumbled around his mouthful of scotch. “I’ve had enough of you for one evening.”

“Well, that is a pity, _sweetling_ ,” a voice responded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun!!!!!!!
> 
> Sorry (not really) about the cliffhanger!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is Chapter 7 of _Where the Devil Don't Go_ for your delectation! We're at the half way point!!
> 
> This chapter very nearly didn't get finished and posted at all as I've had major computer issues this past week and it's only thanks to a friends laptop that I got it done (thanks Mark, owe you mate). As a result of my computer woes, Chapter 8 will be delayed. I'm hoping to have my computer back up and running this week but I've barely started it at all and with being back at university I don't have a hell of a lot of time to write. So hopefully in two weeks I will have the new chapter for you all. You all know my love for a good cliffhanger, and I apologise that there is one at the end of this chapter, but I hope you can all forgive me and hold on. Thanks everyone.
> 
> I say this in all of my chapter notes and I'm saying it again (basically expect me to say it at the start of every chapter), **thank you** so very much for reading, bookmarking, kudosing, commenting and following this story. It means a lot, it truly does.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter!

_Previously on Lucifer: “Where the Devil Don’t Go” – In their efforts to catch the murderer of nightclub owners Jared Wright and Harrison Archer, Lucifer and Chloe sought to identify the killer through any means necessary. Their efforts were somewhat hampered thanks to the killer being ever mindful of the presence of CCTV cameras and hiding his face. Charlotte's recent arrival and threats has lead Lucifer to believe that she may have something to so with his friends' murders; more so now that his bar tender Rob Bradley has been murdered as well. Lucifer turned to his brother Amenadiel in the hope of understanding what their mothers' intentions may be but the discussion only frustrated him when Amenadiel couldn't provide any new information. Wallowing in self pity, Lucifer was drowning his sorrows in scotch until someone unexpectedly arrived at his apartment._

#### Chapter 7

Pressing the button to call the elevator to Lucifer’s apartment, Chloe watched the coroner load Rob Bradley’s body onto a stretcher. The last few hours had been incredibly long, processing the scene, questioning Lucifer’s staff, and viewing the footage from above the bar that showed the moment that Rob Bradley had been stabbed multiple times by a masked assailant. What she needed now was a good drink with her partner.

Dan hadn’t stopped his incessant questioning about her seeing Lucifer naked and when she’d stopped answering him he’d decided that Chloe and Lucifer were sleeping together. She knew Lucifer would get a good laugh out of it and then suggest that they do have sex just so Dan’s impressions were correct. Chloe already had the comeback ready for that suggestion.

Propelling herself from where she’d been leaning against the back of the elevator as the doors slid open, Chloe called out to her partner. “Lucifer, I-”

The words died in Chloe’s mouth at the sight of Lucifer’s apartment. Glass and alcohol was strewn across the floor and many of the shelves behind Lucifer’s newly restored bar were broken as well. It looked as if a hurricane had swept through the apartment. She’d known that Lucifer had still been angry when he’d returned to his apartment earlier but she couldn’t believe that he would have been angry enough to completely destroy his apartment; and certainly not angry enough to break his grand piano.

The Steinway piano was smashed and learning to one side, its front left leg and been snapped in two, several of the keys were missing and spread across the floor and a large dent marred the top of its polished surface. She remembered the times she’d sat with Lucifer on the stool, which now lay smashed to pieces across the room, listening to and watching him play and laughed at his frustrations as she could barely string two notes together no matter how much time and effort he put into trying to teach her. The sight of the piano in this state worried her, not only because Lucifer’s most valued possession was destroyed but because there was no sign of its owner.

“Lucifer?” she called out into the apartment but she got no response. She didn’t want to let herself worry, maybe he’d just drunken himself into a stupor after his rage and was passed out in his bedroom or hidden somewhere on his balcony enjoying a smoke. There was probably a perfectly good explanation as to why Lucifer’s apartment was completely trashed.

Her steps were careful as she edged her way further into the apartment, her cop training telling her to treat this as a crime scene even though her heart was trying to tell her she was being ridiculous but it didn’t stop her from resting her hand on her service weapon against her hip. As Chloe reached the far side of the piano, her heart lurched when she spotted a small pool of blood but she tried to discount it immediately; there was a lot broken glass strewn everywhere on the floor, it was perfectly reasonable that Lucifer had cut himself on it. And there would be a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this.

“Lucifer?” Chloe called out again, desperation entering her voice. Where in hell was he?

From the centre of the apartment, Chloe could take in the full extent of the damage to the apartment and the longer she looked the less she began to hope that it had been Lucifer who had caused the chaos alone. Everywhere she looked she saw signs of a struggle. One wall had been caved in when someone the size of a grown man had been thrown against it; many of the books on Lucifer’s bookshelves were scattered around the apartment and the ladder leading up to the top shelves was on the floor broken in two. Not one inch of the apartment had remained untouched.

Chloe followed the destruction and the blood droplets to Lucifer’s bedroom. She carefully pushed the door open with her foot, mindful not to touch the handle lest she destroy a valuable fingerprint. Not that the fingerprint was going to be needed, Chloe tried to assure herself, she was going to find Lucifer passed out drunk on his bed and when she got him up he would explain what in hell had happened to his apartment. But the bed was empty. The sheets were rumpled and twisted but not in a way that would suggest someone had used the bed for sleeping, or even sex. A soft breeze wafted across the room to her and she realised it wasn’t because it had been left open but because a large portion of it had been broken; something large had gone through it.

Chloe tried to ignore the panic rising in her chest. She called for her partner again but when she once more received no response she threw procedure out the window and barged into the master ensuite bathroom only to find it to be the only room the destruction hadn’t touched. There was no sign of Lucifer anywhere in his apartment or on his balcony.

She could barely think for the pounding of her heart in her ears. It hadn’t been that long ago that she’d sent Lucifer up here and no one had come or gone from it, she would have noticed them coming through the club. Chloe’s mind raced trying to comprehend what might have happened here but she couldn’t think of anything that explained why Lucifer had just seemed to vanish into thin air. The one thing Chloe did know was that Lucifer’s apartment was now a crime scene.

Racing back across the living space, Chloe hammered her thumb against the call button for the elevator until the doors finally slid open. The tip of her thumb turned white for how hard she pressed the close door button and she tapped her foot impatiently as the elevator moved slowly downward. Had the damn thing always been this slow?

She’d hardly let the doors open before squeezing through and coming to a halt against the railing above Lux’s main floor. Chloe breath was ragged, as though she’d just run a marathon, as she scanned the detectives still milling around the nightclub’s floor chatting amongst themselves as the forensic techs continued processing the scene but she couldn’t see her ex-husband, there were too bloody many dark haired detectives in their precinct.

“Dan?!” she noticed the slight hysterical quality to her voice but ignored it.

Every face down on the floor slowly turned in her direction and she resumed her scanning but still couldn’t see him. Please, God, don’t let him have gone home already. 

“He stepped outside to take a call,” one of her associates’ voices floated up to her after a minute or so. “Everything alright, Decker?”

She ignored the question, as well as the mutterings about her she could already hear coming from the floor, and raced for the exit, nearly crashing into Dan as he made his way back inside. He caught her by the elbow, saving her from falling to the ground, and held her upright. Concern flashed across his face at the sight of her. “Chloe, what’s wrong?”

Chloe took a steadying breath. “Lucifer’s gone.”

The look of concern immediately fell from Dan’s face. “Maybe he’s feeling guilty about his friends being murdered and is on the run. I tried to tell you that-”

“Dan, his apartment is trashed and there’s blood everywhere,” Chloe cut in. She didn’t have time for Dan’s bullshit.

The words sombred Dan. “He was kind of pissed off after finding his bartenders’ body…”

Chloe shook her head vehemently. “Lucifer couldn’t have thrown himself against a wall five feet above the ground, Dan.”

Dan touched Chloe’s shoulder in a way that was supposed to be comforting but she found it mildly patronising instead, as though he thought she was overreacting. “I’ll go and check it out.”

She watched him go and only just held back from following. While she waited, Chloe dialled Lucifer’s cell phone but only reached his voicemail; he was notoriously bad at checking his voicemail and returning calls but Chloe still left one just in case. It was a short and simple message; _when you get this, call me_. She just hoped he would be able to call her.

A feeling of nausea had settled in Chloe’s stomach and it wasn’t a feeling she was used to. She’d dealt with missing persons cases in the past but even the ones that had involved children hadn’t affected her in such a way. It was likely because she felt somewhat responsible. The first responders had only cleared the first level of the building, ensuring that the killer wasn’t still lurking about but they wouldn’t have thought of checking Lucifer’s apartment and she’d unwittingly sent him up there. It wasn’t as though he ever restricted access to his elevator, anyone could enter his apartment, and when she’d pointed this out to him Lucifer had just laughed and told her that maybe he’d planned it out that way.

Chloe paced back and forth outside the elevator, debating whether or not to go up and point out to Dan that all the evidence pointed to Lucifer having had a fight with someone and not just trashing his own apartment and wrestling with the thoughts racing through her mind. Where was Lucifer now? Was he still alive? He was a strong man – she’d seen him throw Ty Huntley’s manager, Joe Hanson, across a room with little effort and lift Erik Doyle, Father Frank’s killer, as though he weighed nothing – who could have overpowered him? How did they get out of the apartment without anyone noticing? There was only one way in and out of Lucifer’s apartment that Chloe knew of and no one could have brought Lucifer down in the elevator and past dozens of cops and detectives without anyone noticing. Surely?

Chloe’s pacing halted as the elevator doors parted, letting Dan back onto Lux’s floor, and the look on his face told Chloe that she hadn’t been overreacting. The look on his face told her that Detective Espinoza was taking control. At least Dan could put aside his dislike for Lucifer aside and do his job.

“Listen up,” he called over noise of the officers, detectives and forensic techs still on site. Everyone immediately turned and gave him their attention. Even after what he’d done in regards to Malcolm and the fact that Chloe had been right about what had happened at Palmetto, everyone still respected Dan more than they did her. “Lucifer Morningstar was attacked by an unknown assailant in his apartment and is now missing.”

A ripple of murmurs spread across the nightclub at Dan’s words but when he raised his hand they immediately ceased. 

“There are obvious signs of a struggle so I want a forensic team up there ASAP to start processing and looking for clues as to how the assailant got Mr Morningstar out of the building without anyone noticing. I also need a team to start canvassing the area for any signs of Mr Morningstar and his assailant or anyone who might have seen him. Mr Morningstar is well known, so there’s a good chance that someone has seen him.

“Considering the recent spate of murders of nightclub owners, we cannot discount that this might be the work of the Nightclub Killer and he has escalated to taking hostages. We know the Nightclub Killer to be armed and dangerous, so remain vigilant and do not take any undue risks. That being said, let’s get out there and find Lucifer Morningstar alive.”

With a clap of Dan’s hands everyone sprang into action. Forensic techs no longer required to process the site of Rob Bradley’s death grabbed their kits and piled into the elevator with a small collection of cops. The flurry of action had Chloe’s head in a spin and she was thankful that Dan had been here to take control because she wasn’t sure that she would have been able to at that moment.

“Thanks, Dan,” Chloe said quietly.

“Everything’s going to be okay. We’ll find him.”

She ignored that Dan hadn’t used the addendum “ _alive_ ” in his personal promise of finding Lucifer. There was no way that Lucifer was dead, she just wasn’t going to accept it.

Chloe made to move toward the elevator to Lucifer’s apartment but Dan caught her arm. “Are you sure you should go up there?”

It took great effort to not roll her eyes. “I’m not sitting this out, Dan, and don’t even try and stop me. Lucifer is my partner, I owe it to him to help find him.”

Dan looked as though he was about to say something but seemed to think better of it and instead just released her arm. Chloe took her leave, thumbing the elevator call button repeatedly until the doors slid open to admit her, all the while ignoring Dan’s eyes boring into her back.

There was a flurry of action happening already within Lucifer’s apartment. The techs had their tools out and were taking samples of the blood droplets on the floor or were lightly dusting for prints across every surface imaginable. Many of the detectives were milling about in small groups, hypothesising about the sequence of events and what had happened. Chloe tuned them out. None of their words were helpful and she didn’t want to consider their conclusion that there was no way that Lucifer could have survived an assault such as this.

She skirted around the edge of his apartment, not wanting to get in the way of the forensic techs but needing to look for clues, to do something. There was no way to determine where the damage might have started, no matter how much her colleagues speculated, all of the detritus was spread across every inch of the apartment and only served to show that it had been a particularly violent fight.

Entering Lucifer’s library come office space, Chloe noticed that one of the bookshelves was completely askew. The majority of the bookshelves were missing most of their books and a few shelves but the one on the far right was the only bookshelf that had physically moved from its original position. She nearly put it down to it being last in the line, that Lucifer or his attacker had been thrown against it sending it crashing aside, but that didn’t explain why it was so far away from the wall. And then Chloe saw the torn piece of Lucifer’s jacket attached to a small notch on the side of the bookshelf.

She had to restrain herself from grabbing the small piece of fabric and instead turned to call for a tech. It would have to be tested to confirm that it was Lucifer’s but Chloe had no doubt to whom it belonged. As she moved aside to let the tech near the evidence, Chloe felt a small breeze brush against the back of her neck. There were no windows in this part of the apartment and initially Chloe put it down to a trick of her mind but when she turned in the direction the breeze had come a face was looming up from the darkness behind the bookshelf to greet her.

“ _Maze?!_ ”

*******

Mazikeen was less than pleased to be handcuffed and left under the supervision of some sweaty, pathetic excuse for a human being dressed as a cop. She could have easily removed the cuffs and subdued the cop, in either a violent or seductive manner didn’t matter, but after witnessing the state in which she had seen her master’s home she decided that a certain level of decorum was required so that the humans might impart with some information.

She’d been on her way back to see Lucifer after Amenadiel had informed her that someone had been murdered at the club and Lucifer suspected it was his mother’s dirty work. Maze knew that Lucifer would be angry with her, he’d warned her about how dangerous Charlotte was and that there was a chance she would come after them, but the temptation to spend some valuable time with Amenadiel had been too great. She’d never been great at the whole monogamy thing but the sex with Amenadiel was satisfying enough, for now.

It had been more than an hour since Lucifer’s pet detective had found her coming up the back entrance to the apartment. Usually used only in emergencies, Maze had used it to get around the police cordon and speak to her master and gauge their next course of action. She had not expected the Detective’s pale, surprised face looking back at her as she came up the final few steps. Then she had been unceremoniously handcuffed by Lucifer’s pet and escorted to the elevator. In the dozen or so steps it had taken, Maze had gone willingly, choosing instead to use the traipse through Lucifer’s apartment as a means of deciphering why there were dozens of cops in her master’s home and no sign of the Devil himself.

The state of the apartment told her two things: Lucifer was gone and whomever he had fought was not of this world. Angel or demon, Lucifer had met his match.

Now Chloe Decker was crossing the floor to stand before Maze, hands firmly crossed across her chest.

“Where’s Lucifer?”

“I was going to ask the same thing,” Maze countered fluidly.

“You were caught coming up a secret entrance to Lucifer’s apartment, an entrance that was likely used to kidnap Lucifer from his apartment, how many people know about it?”

Maze noted the slight note of hysteria in the Detective’s voice. It didn’t suit her. Usually she was calm and collected, if a little uncultured and brash, but this was completely new and Maze put it down to the Detective’s obvious infatuation with her master. She wondered if the Detective realised she was in love with Lucifer as much as it was obvious to everyone else.

“Lucifer and myself.”

“Do you see where I’m going with this, Maze?”

Maze rolled her eyes. Humans were so predictable. The first person they slapped cuffs on was always the one to whom they pinned the crime. Considering how often that was rarely the case, you’d think they’d stop doing it but, then again, they are just simple humans, after all. You can’t expect too much from them. “If I had kidnapped Lucifer, do you really think I would be so _stupid_ as to return to the scene of the crime?”

“You tell me,” the Detective countered with a raised eyebrow.

“You could have been returning to clean up the mess you made, make it look like Lucifer left town,” the Detective’s ex added needlessly. After Maze had overpowered him and dumped him naked on the Detective’s couch in the hope that they would have sex, get back together and Lucifer’s ridiculous obsession with the Detective would cease, he had been particularly frosty towards her. 

“I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer. You’re wasting your time with me, you should be out there trying to find whoever it was that took Lucifer and get him back.”

Chloe couldn’t deny that Mazikeen had a point and was probably right, there was some freaky relationship between Maze and Lucifer and she highly doubted that Maze would ever do anything to hurt Lucifer, but Chloe was frustrated beyond belief and was looking for somewhere for it to be focused. 

They’d spent the last hour, after they’d brought Maze down to Lux, exploring the secret entrance to Lucifer’s apartment but it had been fruitless. Their only clue that Lucifer had been taken from the apartment that way was the piece torn from his jacket. There had been no sign of where he might have been taken after the secret entrance had emptied into the alley behind Lux and any clues that might have been there had disappeared thanks to the steady drizzle. 

Chloe took a half dozen steps away from Maze, she barely felt like she was keeping it together. “This is a waste of time,” she ground out.

“Do you want me to ask her some questions?” Dan volunteered.

Chloe shook her head. “I don’t think she had anything to do with Lucifer’s disappearance but there might be something else she knows.”

The pair turned and watched Lucifer’s bartender for a few moments. She was chatting amicably with young Officer Arthur Garfield and something she’d said had made him laugh. It was all innocent enough until it looked as though Officer Garfield was going to undo Maze’s handcuffs and Dan had to a put a stop to it; it didn’t matter how much Maze pouted and complained the cuffs were too tight.

Chloe was at her wits end. She paced in small circles trying to decide her next course of action. It’s going to take days for any of the samples taken from Lucifer’s apartment to come back and tell them if there was any DNA or prints left behind by anyone other than Lucifer, and Chloe was afraid that in that time something bad would happen it Lucifer, if it hadn’t already. She refused to believe that Lucifer was dead but she didn’t know how much time he had left. She didn’t want to consider it right now.

“Detective Decker?” a voice called to her from the doorway that lead to Lux’s office. A small tech team had been working in there since Rob Bradley’s body had been found but their search had gone into overdrive after Lucifer had gone missing. “You’ll want to see this.”

She rushed to the small office behind the tech and stopped cold when she saw the image paused on the computer monitor. It was him. Balding head, patchy beard and grubby coat; the man they’d been looking for all along. There was no denying it now, he’d been targeting Lux and Lucifer. “When was this?” Chloe asked.

The tech brought up the date stamp. “Yesterday afternoon, around 4PM.”

“Print that off for me, will you?”

With the click of a few buttons, the state of the art printer across the room started spitting out a page of the image from Lux’s security vision in glorious high definition colour. Chloe didn’t wait for the printer to finish releasing the page before she snatched it and hurried out of the office. Molly Dunham, Harrison Archer’s bartender had seen this man before her boss had been killed, there was a chance that Maze might have seen him lurking around Lux.

She presented the picture to the still cuffed bartender. “Have you seen this man before?”

Maze barely glanced at the picture before looking over the top of the page to scrutinise the Detective instead. She had some of that purpose and fight back that she’d been lacking when she’d first questioned Maze. “Yeah, his name’s Howard Armstrong.”

Chloe’s eyebrows shot upwards in surprise by the information Maze had just imparted. “You know his name? How do you know his name?”

“Because I watch the news,” Maze retorted unhelpfully. 

Chloe shook her head and shrugged, she was obviously missing something.

Maze sighed. “He’s some priest, or something. He made the news a year or so ago after his kid, daughter, I think, died from an overdose in a nightclub and he vowed to see the closure of all of LA’s nightclubs. He tried telling the police that she’d been drugged but you cops just ruled it as another junkie getting their just desserts. He got a few people on his side but, obviously, it wasn’t enough to do anything. Up until a month or so ago the news still reported on his latest futile efforts.” Maze’s eyes narrowed. “Why? Does he have something to do with Lucifer going missing?”

“He’s a potential suspect in Jared Wright’s and Harrison Archer’s murders and, yes, Lucifer’s disappearance,” Chloe told her. “Are you sure it’s the same man?”

Maze took the offered picture and inspected it carefully before handing it back. “It’s Howard Armstrong. I can tell the difference between one pathetic human stain from another and, beard or no, there’s no mistaking who that is.”

Chloe felt a spark of hope flare in her chest. This was the first solid lead they had toward finding the killer and, now, hopefully, Lucifer too. She grabbed her phone and called dispatch. “I need the address for one Howard Armstrong,” she said urgently with pen poised, waiting for the address. After scribbling down the address that came back to a Father Howard Armstrong, rather than the dozens of others, Chloe felt the rush she always felt when she was about to catch the bad guy. “Let’s go get Lucifer back.”

*******

It’s the cold splash of water into his face that woke him. He sputtered and blinked furiously trying to clear the water from his eyes. As Lucifer’s vision finally cleared, he took in his surroundings and cursed loudly. The tiny room he was in was concrete from floor to ceiling and the mental door before him was dotted with large patches of rust. Lucifer didn't know where he was but he knew for certain that this wasn't Hell.

His head throbbed and the metallic taste of blood lingered in his mouth. Charlotte had done a number on him and he could barely see out of his right eye.

“Good mornin’, Mr Morningstar,” a southern voice drawled lightly.

Lucifer lifted his head but it was a difficult feat thanks to the thick metal cuff around his throat. He swallowed thickly around it. "I'm afraid we've not had the pleasure, you are?" 

It was difficult to be particularly charming when you were chained to a concrete wall by your throat and wrists. 

The man was short, dark haired, and middle aged with too much fat around his middle, he was someone you'd pass in the street and forget as soon as he was out of your sight. The only outstanding part of him were his bright red cowboy boots which stood out glaringly against his pressed pants and dinner jacket. Lucifer was just waved off by him. "None o' that matters, Mr Morningstar, I'm just here t' do a job for the lovely Ms Richards."

Lucifer wondered where his mother had gone to and why she was using this human as a proxy but knew that question wouldn't be answered just yet, so he decided on one that he might actually receive the answer to. "So, tell me, Boots-"

The southern man sniggered at Lucifer's nickname for him. It wasn't particularly original but that wasn't of terribly much importance to Lucifer.

"-for what job were you hired?"

The man watched Lucifer for a few moments, as if debating whether or not he should divulge such information. "Let me answer that with a question of my own, Mr Morningstar," the man said after a few minutes of silence. " _Are you ready t' go back t' Hell?_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crime fighting Devil! It makes sense! Don't over think it!


End file.
